HOME  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 


UNIVERSITY  OF 

AT   LOS  ANGELES 


GIFT  OF 

Lewis  A.  Maverick 


V 


woka  { 


HOME   UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 
OF' MODERN  KNOWLEDGE 

No.  10 

Editors : 

HERBERT    FISHER,  M.A.,  F.B.A. 
Prof.  GILBERT   MURRAY,  Litt.D., 

LL.D.,  F.B.A. 
Prop.  J.   ARTHUR    THOMSON,  M.A. 
Prof.  WILLIAM  T.  BREWSTER,  M.A. 


THE  HOME  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 
OF  MODERN"  KNOWLEDGE 

i6mo  cloth,  50  cents  net,  by  mail  56  cents 

SOCIAL  SCIENCE 

Already  Published 

THE  SCIENCE  OF  WEALTH  .   .   By  J.  A.  Hobson 
PARLIAMENT:    Its  History,  Con- 
stitution and  Practice By  Sir  Courtenay  P.  Ilbeit 

LIBERALISM      By  L.  T.  Hobhousk 

THE  STOCK  EXCHANGE  .    .    .    .  By  F.  W.  Hirst 
THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT    .   By  J.  Ramsay  MacDonald 
THE  EVOLUTION  OF  INDUSTRY  By  D.   II.    Macgregor 
ELEMENTS  OF  ENGLISH  LAW  By  W.  M.  Geldart 
THE    SCHOOL :    An     Introduction 

to  the   Study  of   Education   .    .    .   By  J.  J.  Findlay 
THE  IRISH  NATIONALITY     .     .   By  Mrs.  J.  R.  Green 
ELEMENTS        OF       POLITICAL 

ECONOMY By  S.  J.  Chapman 

THE  NEWSPAPER By  G.  B.  Dibblee 

CO-PARTNERSHIP  AND  PROF- 
IT-SHARING IN  INDUSTRY     .    By  A.  Williams. 

Future  Issues 

PRACTICAL     IDEALISM  ....  By  Maurice  Hewlett 

THE  CRIMINAL  AND  THE  COM- 

MUNITY By  Viscount  St.  Cyres. 

TOWN  PLANNING By  Raymond  Unwin. 

THE  SOCIAL  SETTLEMENT   .     .   By  Tane  Addams  and  R.  A. 

Woods 

THE  NEGRO By  W.  E.  B.  Du  Bois. 

POLITICAL  THOUGHT  IN  ENG- 
LAND FROM  BACON  TO 
LOCKE By  G.  P.  Gooch, 

POLITICAL  THOUGHT  IN  ENG- 
LAND FROM  BENTHAM  TO 
J.  S.  MILL By  W.  L.  Davidson. 

GREAT  INVENTIONS       .     .     .     .   By  J.  L.  Myrks 

THE    CIVIL    SERVICE By  Graham  Wallas 

ENGLISH   VILLAGE   LIFE  .   .   .  By  E.  N.  Bennett 

COMMON   SENSE  IN  LAW    .    .   By  P.  Vinogradoff 


* 


THE    SOCIALIST 
MOVEMENT 


BY 


J.  RAMSAY  MACDONALD,  M.P. 

AUTHOR    OF    "SOCIALISM    AND    GOVERNMENT" 
M  LABOUR    AND    THE    EMPIRE,"     ETC. 


"   .  ■  • ' 


NEW    YORK 
HENRY   HOLT  AND    COMPANY 

LONDON 
WILLIAMS  AND   NORGATE 


Copyright,  191  i, 

BY 

HENRY    HOLT   AND    COMPANY 


THE   UNIVERSITY    PRESS,    CAMBRIDGE,    U.S.A. 


f^ 


01 


■• 


9 
CONTENTS 


PAOB 

Introduction ix 

SOCIALIST  EVOLUTION 

I     Political 

-«ir                     ••     Mutual  Aid 15 

t  U                      ii.     The  Individual  in  the  Community    .     .  17 

'  £                    iii.     The  French  Revolution 22 

iv.     The  Century  of  Individualism       ...  26 

*5 


^    « 


Economic  and  Industrial 

i.     To-day 29 

•^  ii.     Revolts  against  Poverty 36 

iii.     The  Rise  of  Capitalism 41 

-^                   iv.  The    fulfilment  of  Capitalism  ....  47 

v.     The  Small  Capitalist 51 

vi.     Summary 54 


SOCIALIST   CRITICISM 

III     The  Economic  Failure  of  Capitalism 

i.     Rent 56 

ii.     Interest 61 

iii.     Waste  of  Capital 64 

iv.     Waste  of  Labour 66 

v.     Poverty 70 


268531 


vi  CONTENTS 

CHAP.  ti.O» 

IV     The  Intellect  undee  Capitalism 

i.     Religion 78 

ii.     Literature 82 

iii.     Science 88 

iv.     Comfort 91 

V     Summary 94 


SOCIALIST   CONSTRUCTION 

VI     The  Socialist  Method 

i.     Utopianism 99 

ii.     Revolution 103 

iii.     The  Experimental  Method 105 

iv.     The  Parliamentary  Method 107 

v.     The  Scientific  Method 114 

VII     What  Socialism  is  not 

i.     Anarchism  and  Communism     ....  122 

ii.     The  Abolition  of  Private  Property      .     .  125 

iii.     The  Negation  of  Liberty 132 

iv.     Equality 138 

v.     Economic  Determinism 141 

vi.     Class  War 147 

VIII     The  Immediate  Demands  of  Socialism 

i.     Democracy 150 

ii.     Palliatives 154 

iii.     Constructive  Legislation 157 

iv.     Right  to  Work 163 

IX     In  the  Socialist  State no 

i.     Ability 171 

ii.     Artistic  Genius 178 

iii.     Minority  Rights 185 

iv.    Workshop  Management 189 


CONTENTS  vii 

CHAP.  PAS! 

THE  SOCIALIST   MOVEMENT 

X     The  Socialist  Movement 195 

i.     Saint-Simon  and  Fourier 196 

ii,     Robert  Owen  and  Chartism 202 

iii.     Marx  and  Engels 205 

iv.     Marxism  and  Revisionism 210 

v.     Lasalle  and  the  German  Party  ....  213 

vi.     The  French  Party 217 

vii.     The  Italian  Party 221 

viii.     The  Belgian  Party 223 

ix.     The  Party  in  America  and  other  Cou  ntries  224 

XI     The  Socialist  Movement — (continued) 

L     The  British  Party 229 

ii.     The  International 235 

Conclusion 

"  If  Mankind  Continue  to  Improve  "   .     .     .  243 

Bibliography 249 

Index 253 


INTRODUCTION 


One  of  the  greatest  of  the  difficulties  which 
beset  the  path  of  the  Socialist  is  the  refusal 
on  the  part  of  his  opponents  to  give  an  accu- 
rate statement  of  what  Socialism  means  and 
what  the  purpose  of  Socialism  is.  The  main 
object  of  this  book  is  to  explain  both.  The 
Editors  have  asked  a  Conservative  to  explain 
Conservatism  and  a  Liberal  to  interpret  Liber- 
alism, and  have  on  the  same  principle  turned 
to  me  to  write  about  Socialism.  It  is,  perhaps, 
best  that  doctrines  which  are  the  objects  of 
fierce  assault  should  be  explained  by  writers 
who  believe  in  them,  for,  whether  a  doctrine 
is  or  is  not  to  have  a  lasting  influence  depends 
not  on  the  success  with  which  clever  critics 
attack  some  of  its  outworks,  nor  on  the  amount 
of  error  which  creeps  into  its  popular  advocacy, 
but  on  the  amount  of  truth  which  it  really  con- 
tains, and  that  is  more  familiar  to  friend  than 
to  foe. 

The  Socialist  movement  has  suffered,  as  all 
great  idealist  and  Utopian  movements  have 
suffered,  by  having  attached  to  them  proposals 


x  INTRODUCTION 

which  do  not  really  belong  to  them,  but  which 
happened  to  be  born  and  cradled  with  them. 
Progress  has  a  habit  of  bringing  forth  several 
babes  at  the  same  time.  For  instance,  the 
earlier  advocates  of  Socialism  were  found  in 
the  more  extreme  camps  of  liberal  thought  in 
their  day.  They  heralded  with  unqualified 
enthusiasm  the  conquests  of  science  on  the 
field  of  faith.  It  was  their  nature  to  give  no 
lukewarm  welcome  to  anything  that  seemed  to 
be  a  gleam  of  light  on  the  horizon.  Religion 
in  their  day  was  the  creed  of  the  rich;  churches 
were  built  to  keep  the  people  quiet;  an  English 
reactionary  majority  in  Parliament  voted  money 
to  tin-  Church  to  help  it  to  stem  the  rising  tide 
of  Radical  democracy.  The  Socialist  pioneer 
went  out  boldly  and  challenged  all  this.  He 
grouped  all  his  enemies  in  one  crowd,  all  their 
creeds  and  professions  in  one  bundle,  and  he 
condemned  them  in  the  bulk.  This  happened 
in  other  directions,  with  the  result  that  to-day 
the  opponents  of  Socialism  try  to  make  Social- 
ism itself  responsible  for  every  extravagance, 
every  private  opinion,  every  enthusiasm  of 
every  one  of  its  advocates.  The  logic  is  this: 
Mr.  Smith  writes  that  the  family  is  only  a  pass- 
ing form  of  organisation;  Mr.  Smith  is  a  Social- 
ist; therefore  all  Socialists  think  that  the  family 
is  only  a  passing  form  of  organisation.  This 
method  of  controversy  may  offer  for  itself  a 
shamefaced  justification  when  it  is  resorted  to 
for  the  purpose  of  a  raging  and  tearing  political 
fight  in  which  the  aim  of  the  rivals  is  not  to 
arrive  at  truth  but  to  catch  votes,  but  it  cannot 
be   defended   on   any   other   or   higher   ground, 


* 


INTRODUCTION  xi 

and  it  requires  only  the  slightest  knowledge 
of  the  history  of  opinion  in  this  country  to  see 
what  havoc  would  be  played  with  our  critics 
if  we  were  to  apply  such  a  perverted  logic  to 
them  and  their  creeds. 

Socialism  is  the  creed  of  those  who,  recog- 
nising that  the  community  exists  for  the 
improvement  of  the  individual  and  for  the 
maintenance  of  liberty,  and  that  the  control 
of  the  economic  circumstances  of  life  means 
the  control  of  life  itself,  seek  to  build  up  a  social 
organisation  which  will  include  in  its  activities 
the  management  of  those  economic  instruments 
such  as  land  and  industrial  capital  that  cannot 
be  left  safely  in  the  hands  of  individuals.  This 
is  Socialism.  It  is  an  application  of  mutual 
aid  to  politics  and  economies.  And  the  Social- 
ist end  is  liberty,  the  liberty  of  which  Kant 
thought  when  he  proclaimed  that  every  man 
should  be  regarded  as  an  end  in  himself  and 
not  as  a  means  to  another  man's  end.  The 
means  and  the  end  cannot  be  separated.  So- 
cialism proposes  a  change  in  social  mechanism, 
but  justifies  it  as  a  means  of  extending  human 
liberty.  Social  organisation  is  the  condition, 
not  the  antithesis,  of  individual  liberty. 

Round  this  conception  of  the  State  and  com- 
munity, of  mutual  aid  and  of  social  evolution, 
many  interests  cluster.  It  is  like  a  city  towards 
which  roads  run  from  all  points  of  the  compass — 
a  pilgrims'  way  for  the  devout,  a  trade  route 
for  the  merchant,  a  bridle  path  for  the  phil- 
osopher; and  so  we  have  many  aspects  of  So- 
cialism. We  have,  for  instance,  the  Independent 
Labour    Party    approaching    it    down    political 


xii  INTRODUCTION 

pathways,  the  Christian  Socialist  section,  like 
the  Church  Socialist  League,  approaching  from 
religious  quarters,  scientific  Socialist  groups, 
coming  by  way  of  biological  or  other  scientific 
roads,  and  so  on.  As  time  goes  on  and  our 
industrial  experience  gets  fuller  and  more  accu- 
rate some  of  the  forecasts  made  by  the  earlier 
Socialists,  and  some  of  the  forms  in  which  they 
cast  their  theories,  have  had  to  be  modified. 
Also,  advance  in  one  direction  opens  out  other 
ways  of  advance  hidden  until  then,  and  methods 
change  in  response.  For  instance,  the  Socialists 
of  half  a  century  ago  lived  when  revolution  was 
in  the  air  in  Europe  and  this  coloured  their 
statement  of  the  Socialist  position.  The  at- 
mosphere has  changed  and  so  the  colour  has 
faded,  but  Socialism  itself  remains  that  concep- 
tion of  the  social  organisation  which  I  have 
indicated  above. 

It  may  save  some  misunderstanding  if  I 
make  it  clear  at  the  very  outset  that  Socialists 
do  not  attack  individuals.  When  they  criticise 
capitah'.m  or  commercialism  they  do  not  con- 
demn capitalists  or  business  men.  On  the 
contrary,  they  consider  that  the  capitalist  is  as 
much  the  victim  of  his  system  as  the  unem- 
ployed, and  that  he  has  to  conform  to  its  evil 
pressure  in  the  same  way  as  the  poverty  stricken 
have  to  do  so.  The  results  are  not  the  same, 
but  they  are  products  of  the  same  social  mechan- 
ism. Socialism  deals  primarily  with  the  evo- 
lution of  economic  relationships  and  not  with 
the  moral  nature  of  man.  Of  course  the  prob- 
lems of  society  can  never  be  treated  as  though 
they  were  independent  of  the  problems  of  the 


INTRODUCTION  xiii 

individual  life,  but  man  as  a  separate  indi- 
vidual, and  man  in  society,  present  well  differ- 
entiated groups  of  problems,  and  Socialism 
arises  in  connection  with  the  latter  rather  than 
with  the  former. 


THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 


CHAPTER  I 

POLITICAL 

1.  Mutual  Aid. 

Mutual  aid  amongst  men  has  played  at 
least  as  great  a  part  in  human  history  as  the 
struggle  for  life.  Within  his  clan  and  tribe 
the  individual  has  striven  for  mastery  over 
other  individuals.  Chiefs  have  plotted  and 
murdered,  thrones  have  brought  many  rivals 
to  their  steps,  and  sexual  selection  has  been 
picking  and  choosing  survivors  and  offspring 
since  the  beginning  of  time.  But  this  indi- 
vidual selection  has  always  had  a  social  setting. 
If  it  resulted  in  weakness  it  was  not  a  man 
who  died  but  a  clan  that  was  swept  away;  if 
it  resulted  in  strength  it  was  not  a  tyrant  who 
was  born  but  a  nation  that  was  founded.  Ro- 
mantic history  is  the  story  of  heroes;  scientific 
history  is  the  story  of  peoples.  The  conflicts 
and  movements  that  make  history  have  been 
the  conflicts  and  movements  of  masses  and 
organisations.     The  colossal  historical  figure  has 

15 


16        THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

been  the  man   endowed   with   the   capacity  to 
gather  up  in  himself  the  life  of  his  time. 

For  dramatic  purposes  we  think  of  some 
Adamic  beginning — a  desert  island,  a  solitary 
man,  an  enemy's  footprint  on  the  sand.  But 
whether  we  are  explaining  economic  or  political 
or  ethical  laws,  we  immediately  proceed  to 
bring  a  second  man  into  friendly  contact  with 
the  first  so  as  to  create  barter,  a  market,  sub- 
division of  labour,  an  alliance,  mutual  interest, 
for  one  or  other  of  these  things  is  the  driving 
wheel  of  progressive  change.  The  wattles  are 
set  up  and  the  mound  and  ditch  made,  but 
for  the  village  not  for  the  individual;  the  castle 
is  built,  but  to  protect  the  retainers  as  well  as 
the  lord;  the  king  is  chosen,  but  he  is  the  rep- 
resentative man  of  his  people.  Personal  power 
is  representative.  It  is  the  centre  of  mass 
power.  Laws  are  passed  and  obeyed  for  the 
good  of  the  whole,  to  repress  the  strong  and 
protect  the  weak,  to  punish  the  dishonest  and 
reward  the  honest,  not  at  first  that  individuals 
may  have  justice  done  to  them,  but  that  the 
community  may  exist  and  flourish.  Concep- 
tions of  individual  rights  and  of  justice  come 
much  later.  The  conflict  of  nations  and  clans 
brings  feudalism — the  organisation  of  a  mass 
whose  existence  is  threatened  and  which  is 
threatening  the  existence  of  other  masses.  The 
subdivisions  of  labour  and  responsibility,  of 
power  and  of  honour;  the  relations  of  clans- 
man and  chief,  of  baron  and  king;  the  economic 
structure  of  slave,  chattel  slave  and  lord  of  the 
manor,  were  not  the  creation  of  individual  will 
and  forethought,  but  the  response  to  a  law  of 


. 


POLITICAL  17 

mutual  aid  as  imperative  as  that  law  which 
determines  that  the  bee  must  pack  its  cells  as 
octahedrons  and  not  as  cubes. 

The  conception  of  individual  right  comes  to 
play  a  part  in  history  only  after  social  soli- 
darity has  *been  secured.  Visions  of  the  exist- 
ence of  such  a  right  flash  like  comets  across 
history  long  before  they  enter  a  system  of  prac- 
tical politics.  From  these  visions  have  come, 
in  our  own  history,  Lollardy,  John  Ball  and 
the  peasant  rising,  the  extreme  wings  of  the 
Independent  schisms  during  Cromwell's  time, 
the  early  Socialist  agitation;  but  they  were 
only  the  dreams  of  its  coming  perfection  which 
troubled  Society,  and  they  but  led  to  the  shed- 
ding of  blood  or  to  the  visitation  of  vengeance 
by  the  powers  that  were.  They  were  not  to 
be  understood  even,  until  many  generations 
after  their  leaders  had  died,  had  been  lampooned, 
and  had  been  put,  like  many  another  precious 
thing,  on  the  dust  heaps  and  in  the  lumber 
rooms.1  Social  organisation  arises  to  protect 
the  whole,  but  it  is  first  of  all  captured  by  the 
strong  and  exploited  by  them.  This  double 
thread  of  exploitation  and  revolt  against  exploi- 
tation runs  right  through  history. 

2.  The  Individual  in  the  Community. 

The  explanation  that  these  revolts  of  the 
oppressed  were  only  the  antagonism  of  a  sub- 

1  Only  yesterday  has  justice  been  done  to  men  like  John 
Ball,  Jack  Cade  and  Wat  Tyler,  and  the  truth  has  been 
told  about  such  uprisings  as  the  Peasants'  Revolt  in  England 
or  the  Hussite  Rebellion  in  Germany. 


18        THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

ject  and  exploited  class  to  a  ruling  and  exploit- 
ing one  lacks  historical  background,  and  is 
therefore  inadequate.  The  exploiting  class  had 
a  necessary  function  to  perform.  If  it  put  a 
yoke  of  subjection  on  the  necks  of  other  classes, 
it  was  because  the  organisation  which  society 
required  in  order  that  it  might  exist  at  all, 
implied  such  a  differentiation  into  classes,  with 
political  and  economic  inequalities,  and  conse- 
quently with  opportunities  to  prey  upon  the 
mass  and  use  power  for  personal  and  class  ends. 
John  Ball's  sermons,  to  the  ethics  of  which  no 
one  can  take  objection,  could  no  more  have 
been  carried  into  effect  in  the  days  of  the 
Henrys  than  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  can  be 
carried  into  effect  to-day.  On  the  surface,  the 
whole  history  of  human  progress  within  com- 
munities and  nations  is  a  series  of  class  struggles. 
Liberty  "slowly  broadens  down"  from  class  to 
class  as  the  enfranchised  sections  of  the  nation 
tend  to  become  the  whole  of  the  nation.  In 
the  earlier  stages  of  society  the  custody  of 
national  functions  must  be  in  the  hands  of  a 
few  because  the  military  officer  is  also  the  polit- 
ical authority.  But  when  the  factory  takes 
the  place  of  the  battlefield  in  national  impor- 
tance, the  custodianship  of  national  interests 
must  pass  into  more  hands,  and  the  propertied 
and  middle  classes  are  enfranchised  and  their 
economic  interests  taken  special  care  of.  Finally, 
when  the  state  becomes  a  democratic  organisa- 
tion and  co-operates  with  the  individual  in  all 
spheres  of  his  activity,  the  movement  for  political 
democracy  has  ripened  and  has  produced  its 
natural    social    fruits.     Political    power,    in    the 


POLITICAL  19 

nature  of  things,  must,  then,  be  used  for  eco- 
nomic (amongst  other)  ends.  For,  whilst  the 
political  aim  of  a  class  may  be  power,  or  honour, 
or  wealth,  for  the  mass  of  the  people  there  is 
but  one  aim  possible,  a  general  raising  of  the 
standard  of  life.  It  has  been  customary,  espe- 
cially since  Maine's  time,  to  consider  Democ- 
racy as  nothing  but  a  form  of  government. 
That  is  totally  wrong.  It  is  a  kind  of  govern- 
ment. With  a  social  democracy  politics  really 
become  national  for  the  first  time,  and  com- 
munity consciousness  takes  the  place  of  class 
consciousness. 

From  this  point  of  view  historical  evolution 
assumes  a  meaning  and  an  interest  of  special 
import.  We  start  with  the  group — originally 
a  family.  The  solitary  individual  must  have 
been  more  brute  than  man — indeed,  the  creature 
that  became  man  had  ceased  to  be  solitary. 
The  human  group  is  not  the  creation  of  thought 
but  of  instinct  and  habit.  Love  is  historically 
older  than  reason.  But  the  group  as  it  becomes 
older,  more  fixed  and  better  organised  has  a 
double  life  and  function.  It  protects  itself  as 
a  group;  and  in  this  way  it  develops  a  system 
of  government,  of  ethics,  of  religion,  of  defence; 
it  also  protects  the  individual.  "For,"  as 
Aristotle,  who  is  sometimes  claimed  as  the 
father  of  Individualists  as  Plato  is  claimed  as 
the  father  of  Socialists,  wrote,  "as  the  State 
was  formed  to  make  life  possible,  so  it  exists 
to  make  life  good"  {The  Politics,  Welldon, 
p.  5).  These  two  purposes  run  through  his- 
tory, sometimes  working  in  harmony,  sometimes 
appearing  in  opposition.     In  the  ancient  village 


20        THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

community  of  India  and  in  some  French  vil- 
lages before  the  Revolution,  the  group  life 
reached  its  fullest  stage  of  development.  In 
India,  caste  brought  the  individual  into  a  most 
complete  subjection  to  communal  life.  From 
his  birth  he  had  his  function  assigned  to  him. 
The  sons  of  carpenters  were  carpenters,  the 
sons  of  barbers  became  barbers.  They  were 
not  individual  workmen  at  all;  they  were  village 
functionaries  having  a  share  in  the  village 
wealth,  as  an  organ  of  the  body  has  a  share 
in  the  nutriment  and  life  of  the  body.  They 
did  not  receive  wages;  they  had  a  claim  upon 
communal  wealth  in  a  communist  way.  At 
the  other  extreme  we  have  our  own  modern 
city  where  the  individual,  within  certain  bounds 
set  by  his  economic  position,  whilst  obeying 
codes  of  law  of  a  social  character  is  free  to  go 
and  come,  to  serve  and  accept  service  of  his 
own  will. 

Between  these  two  there  are  many  gradations 
which  mark  a  well-defined  historical  evolution. 
Perhaps  no  code  of  national  law  and  custom 
has  observed  the  balance  between  group  life 
and  individual  life  more  successfully  than  that 
of  Israel.  These  people  were  a  chosen  race, 
but  their  religion  was  as  individualistic  as  it 
was  racial.  The  individual  Jew,  unlike  the 
individual  Hindu,  was  never  merged  in  his  race. 
He  retained  the  rights  of  individuality.  And 
so  we  have  in  the  Mosaic  code  and  its  ampli- 
fications the  most  careful  safeguards  against 
slavery  and  a  deadening  poverty.  Every  sev- 
enth year  Jewish  slaves  are  liberated;  clothes 
taken  in  pawn  must  be  restored  at  the  end  of 


POLITICAL  31 

the  day;  every  seventh  year  is  a  fallow  year 
for  the  fields  when  they  become  common  prop- 
erty; the  rights  of  the  people  to  the  soil  are 
protected  by  legal  and  religious  penalties.  The 
code,  it  has  been  frequently  argued,  partook  of 
some  of  the  qualities  of  some  modern  legisla- 
tion and  was  more  complete  on  paper  than  in 
practice.  But  be  that  as  it  may,  here  it  is, 
an  expression  of  the  sense  of  justice  and  an 
indication  of  the  economic  ideals  of  the  religious 
leaders  of  the  people.  As  the  nation  increases 
in  prosperity  economic  circumstances  arise  to 
create  a  wealthy  and  luxurious  class  on  the  one 
hand,  a  poverty-stricken  class  on  the  other. 
The  revolt  against  that  is  embodied  in  the 
writings  of  the  prophets,  and  they  flare  with 
a  glow  of  indignation  against  the  economic 
disruption  of  the  ancient  religious  government; 
they  denounce  the  rich,  the  man  who  is  adding 
field  to  field,  the  usurers,  in  language  which 
sounds  harsh  and  wild  to  us  now  when  it  is 
used  to  describe  our  own  conditions.  The 
community  of  Israel  with  its  adjustments  of 
social  and  individual  right  and  its  moral  re- 
straints imposed  upon  economic  processes,  went 
down  before  a  capitalist  civilisation,  just  as 
the  Indian  village  community  is  decaying  to-day 
before  the  advance  of  Western  economic  civi- 
lisation. From  this  it  has  been  argued  that 
a  society  organised  as  Israel  was  can  never 
survive  the  assault  of  a  people  like  our  own 
to-day.  But  the  Socialist  reply  is  that  whilst 
the  organisation  of  Israel  could  not  withstand 
the  world  pressure  of  its  time,  its  spiritual  and 
moral  characteristics  have  always  remained  as 


22        THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

enticing  ideals  in  the  minds  of  men,  and  thereby 
provide  not  only  a  proof  that  they  are  to  find 
another  opportunity  of  expression  in  society, 
but  an  earnest  that  the  world  pressure  will 
change  so  as  to  aid  rather  than  stultify  that 
opportunity.  In  other  words,  Socialism  reads 
history  in  the  historical  spirit. 

3.  The  French  Revolution. 

The  critical  point  in  European  history,  when 
the  rights  of  the  individual  asserted  themselves 
in  modern  times  against  an  oppressive,  because 
dead,  form  of  social  organisation,  was  the  French 
Revolution.  Feudalism  had  worked  itself  out. 
The  fighting  organisation  of  the  State,  by  reason 
of  its  own  success,  had  enabled  new  forms  of 
communal  activity  to  grow  up  under  its  pro- 
tecting influence.  The  life  of  the  community 
changed  its  character,  and  the  time  had  been 
reached  when  a  new  communal  organisation 
was  required.  The  Revolution  did  not  affect 
France  alone,  nor  did  France  alone  contain  the 
elements  which  burst  out  into  violence.  France 
happened  to  be  the  stage  upon  which  the  new 
life  fought  for  an  expression  in  the  most  dra- 
matic way.  A  forerunner  had  appeared  in 
Protestantism  when  individual  reason  challenged 
the  bondage  to  which  ecclesiastical  authority 
had  doomed  it.  Before  Protestantism  there  was 
the  Renaissance  when  the  mind  of  the  West 
insisted  upon  looking  upon  the  world  with 
bare  eyes.  But  Protestantism  had  carried  liberty 
only  up  to  a  certain  point.  True  it  had  been 
accompanied    by    an    interesting    upstirring    of 


POLITICAL  2S 

political  thought  and  action,  because  reason 
can  never  be  enlivened  at  one  point  without 
feeling  the  effect  in  all  its  activities.  Luther 
was  attacked  by  his  enemies  in  the  Diet  of 
Worms  for  aiding  and  abetting  social  disorder; 
Carlstadt  and  Mlinzer  accused  him  of  not  being 
revolutionary  enough.  The  Kingdom  of  God 
was  founded  by  the  sword  and  "the  Word" 
in  Miinster.  So,  too,  in  our  own  Puritan  times. 
Democratic  doctrine  welled  up  from  the  same 
source  as  religious  revivalism.  But  not  until 
the  French  Revolution,  two  centuries  and  a 
half  later,  did  the  new  wine  burst  the  old  bottles. 
Protestant  reformations,  geographical  discovery, 
the  making  of  roads  and  the  extension  of  com- 
merce, the  triumph  of  natural  science,  the  crea- 
tion of  a  rich  trading  class  all  went  to  produce 
it;  the  special  circumstances  of  France  alone 
determined  the  stage  upon  which  the  blood  was 
to  flow  and  the  collapse  of  the  old  was  to  be 
the  most  deafening  and  terrible. 

The  French  Revolution  paralysed  the  social 
organism  in  order  that  the  rational  abstraction 
"All  men  are  born  free  and  equal"  might  be 
proclaimed  from  the  housetops.  To  begin  with, 
Europe  was  plunged  into  wars;  European  com- 
munities were  cut  up  and  carved  according  to 
the  vain  wills  of  soldiers  and  diplomatists; 
generations  had  to  pass  before  nations  found 
the  boundaries,  and  citizens  the  groupings, 
which  were  natural  to  them  and  within  which 
alone  they  could  develop  themselves.  Europe 
took  a  century  to  recover  from  the  shock  and 
the  shattering  which  it  received  when  France 
rose  and  swept  the  old  away  in  torrents  of  blood 
and  by  the  brute  force  of  armies. 


24        THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

In  Great  Britain,  where  the  change  took 
place  without  disruption,  we  can  trace  the 
current  of  progress  much  more  easily  than  we 
can  trace  it  anywhere  else.  The  man  who  was 
to  be  born  "free  and  equal"  was  the  man  of 
property,  the  man  belonging  to  the  middle 
class.  The  richer  members  of  that  class  had 
used  their  wealth  particularly  during  the  eight- 
eenth century  for  the  purposes  of  political 
bribery.  "To  acquire  political  power  at  the 
expense  of  the  country  gentlemen  was  the  first 
and  one  of  the  chief  causes  of  that  political 
corruption  which  soon  overspread  the  whole 
system  of  parliamentary  government"  (History 
of  the  Eighteenth  Century.  Lecky,  vol.  i.  p. 
202).  The  rich  man  was  enfranchised  in  1832 
and  immediately  proceeded  to  settle  the  politi- 
cal policy  of  the  State  as  an  honest  citizen;  his 
religious  views  were  accepted  and  he  won  his 
religious  freedom;  his  economic  interests  became 
predominant.  He  required  only  the  most  rudi- 
mentary form  of  social  organisation  for  his 
protection.  An  army  and  navy  for  big  things 
and  a  policeman  for  small  things  satisfied  him. 
For  the  rest  he  only  desired  to  be  let  alone. 
He  could  look  after  himself.  The  explanation 
is  that  he  held  enough  property  to  secure  to 
him  all  the  other  liberties  he  required.  Markets 
were  good,  profits  were  high,  he  had  a  substan- 
tial balance  at  his  bank.  Under  these  circum- 
stances, he  only  wanted  the  removal  of  certain 
old  communal  restrictions  so  as  to  enable  him 
"to  be  an  end  in  himself."  This  is  the  Liberal 
epoch — the  epoch  of  the  government  of  the 
man  who,  having  control  of  the  economic  forces 


POLITICAL  25 

of  his  society,  finds  freedom.  Hence,  it  is  the 
epoch  of  a  political  and  intellectual  individual- 
ism of  the  mechanical  and  not  the  organic  type. 
It  is  marked  by  an  extension  of  commerce,  by 
vast  accumulations  of  wealth,  by  the  creation 
of  commercial  empires,  by  the  rapid  march  of 
scientific  discovery,  by  the  perfecting  of  the 
means  of  production  and  by  the  concentration 
of  industrial  capital.  But,  above  all,  it  is  dis- 
tinguished by  the  growth  of  political  democracy. 
The  actual  programme  of  the  French  Revo- 
lution did  not  include  democracy.  Rousseau's 
theoretical  sovereignty  of  the  people  was  to 
be  made  subject  to  important  limitations,  and 
it  was  to  control  practical  policy  only  at  odd 
moments  of  sentimental  fervour.  The  fathers 
of  the  American  Constitution  took  as  much 
pains  to  limit  democracy  as  to  proclaim  it. 
With  ourselves,  the  Reform  Act  of  1832  was 
never  intended,  at  least  by  its  promoters  in 
Parliament,  to  be  a  democratic  measure — nor 
a  first  step  towards  democracy.  It  proceeded 
from  the  aristocracy  and  was,  at  the  time,  con- 
sistent with  aristocratic  government.  But  some- 
thing happens  with  all  these  beginnings.  They 
have  laws  of  their  own  being.  They  tend  to 
fulfil  themselves.  Their  sequel  turns  out  to  be 
the  very  thing  which  their  authors  disclaimed. 
Man  acts;  natural  law  fulfils  his  action.  Thus 
the  offspring  of  Whiggism  is  Liberalism,  and 
the  child  of  a  reforming  aristocracy  is  democ- 
racy. Social  organisation  being  for  the  well- 
being  of  the  whole  community,  the  will  to  which 
it  is  obedient  in  its  actions  must  in  the  end  be 
the   will   of   the  community   directly   expressed 


26        THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

by  majority  rule.  The  political  sovereignty  by 
which  alone  the  organisation  can  act  tends  to 
be  democratic. 

4.  The  Century  of  Individualism. 

The  last  century  in  England  is  known  as  the 
century  of  individualism,  because  during  its 
two  middle  quarters  in  particular  the  pendulum 
swung  far  towards  the  extreme  of  individual 
liberty  of  the  atomic  or  mechanical  kind.  The 
community  as  an  organic  unity,  as  the  medium 
through  which  individual  liberty  has  to  be 
expressed,  became  a  shadow.  The  oscillation 
passed  from  the  hampering  organisation  of 
feudalism  to  the  desolating  anarchy  of  laissez 
/aire. 

But  even  during  the  nineteenth  century 
communal  action  did  not  disappear;  towards 
the  end  of  the  century,  indeed,  it  became  strong. 
The  state  had  to  protect  the  child  from  the 
factory,  then  the  woman,  then  the  young  person; 
it  had  to  provide  education;  it  had  to  impose 
responsibilities  like  Employers'  Liability  and 
Workmen's  Compensation  upon  the  "free"  em- 
ployers; it  had  to  regulate  hours  and  conditions 
of  labour;  it  had  to  legislate  on  matters  of 
housing  and  public  health.  At  the  same  time 
municipalities  had  to  provide  their  own  water, 
gas  and  tram  services,  their  own  houses,  their 
own  works  departments,  and,  turning  their 
attention  to  other  interests,  they  had  to  open 
libraries,  museums,  art  galleries,  and  arrange 
for  concerts  and  recreations  for  their  citizens, 
who,    but    for    communal    action,    would    have 


V 


POLITICAL  27 

been  kept  away  from  culture  altogether.  Thus 
at  the  moment  of  the  greatest  triumph  of  an- 
archist individualism,  the  fact  that  man  is  a 
social  being  and  that  the  mutual  aid  of  a  com- 
munity is.a  necessary  factor  in  individual  liberty 
and  progress,  was  asserting  itself. 

The  individualism  of  the  nineteenth  century 
was  indeed  only  a  reaction  from  feudalism. 
At  no  time  was  it  able  to  rule  alone.  When 
uncontrolled,  it  worked  fearful  havoc  as  is 
shown  in  the  early  chapters  of  our  factory  life. 
We  are  now  at  that  point  where  these  experi- 
ences are  being  systematised.  They  are  no 
longer  being  regarded  as  the  few  exceptions  to 
the  working  of  another  policy.  They  are  be- 
coming the  main  policy  itself.  We  are  being 
guided  by  the  thought  that  individualism  l 
requires  for  its  maintenance  and  development 
a  well-organised  and  active  state  which  will 
be  the  communal  personality  owning  property, 
educating  and  controlling  the  individual,  guard- 
ing his  liberties,  preventing  the  growth  of  eco- 
nomic interests  antagonistic  to  him,  co-ordinating 
those  co-operative  activities  in  which  he  must 
engage  in  order  that  he  may  be  free  and  have 
the  widest  rational  field  in  which  to  enjoy  his 
liberty.  Wre  are  not  to  go  back  to  feudalism 
or   to   the   village   community.     Were   that   so, 

1 1  do  not  like  to  use  this  word  because  it  is  so  mislead- 
ing. When  used  as  the  antithesis  of  Socialism,  the  word 
means  mechanical  or  anarchist  individualism;  Socialism  is 
itself  a  theory  of  individualism  because  socialists  contend 
that  only  under  Socialism  will  men  be  free.  For  convenience, 
however,  I  use  individualism  in  the  popular  slip-shod  way 
as  the  opposite  of  Socialism,  because  no  other  handy  word 
will  serve  my  purpose. 


28        THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

no  time  need  be  wasted  by  any  one  in  con- 
sidering our  proposals.  He  who  seeks  to  turn 
back  the  leaves  of  history  may  be  disregarded. 
The  epoch  of  caste,  of  status,  of  silent  and 
subordinate  classes,  is  over.  The  individual, 
clothed  in  the  equality  which  is  the  consequence 
of  the  Kantian  ethical  precept  that  every  man 
has  the  right  to  be  treated  as  an  end  in  him- 
self, has  arisen.  For  him  we  have  to  provide 
a  social  system,  for  he,  too,  is  gregarious  and 
not  solitary.  He  has  the  communal  as  well  as 
the  individualist  personality.  Hence  it  is  that 
the  French  Revolution  and  the  general  move- 
ment of  the  human  spirit  to  which  it  was  a 
response,  have  handed  over  to  us  the  task  of 
reconciling  individual  right  and  communal  ac- 
tivity, individual  freedom  and  social  organisa- 
tion, democracy  and  differentiation  of  political 
functions. 

At     this    historical    point    socialism    is    born, 
and  its  task  is  to  effect  the  reconciliation. 


* 


CHAPTER  II 

ECONOMIC   AND    INDUSTRIAL 

Socialism  is  sometimes  presented  as  though 
it  were  nothing  but  a  proposal  to  make  such 
economic  changes  in  social  structure  as  would 
eliminate  poverty.  This  is  only  a  partial  state- 
ment of  socialist  aims,  and  yet  it  is  true  that 
the  prevalence  of  excessive  wealth  and  exces- 
sive poverty  side  by  side  is  one  of  the  chief 
causes  of  the  success  of  the  socialist  propaganda. 


1.   To-day. 

Every  town  in  the  country  affords  some 
example  of  this  contrast;  every  commercialist 
country  in  the  world  adds  details  to  the  picture. 
Apologis's  of  the  existing  order  sometimes  excuse 
it,  sometimes  say  that  the  individual  is  to  blame, 
sometimes  try  and  show  that  things  are  getting 
better.  Mr.  Mallock  has  been  making  guesses 
about  family  incomes  recently  for  the  purpose 
of  showing  that  they  are  now  fairly  substantial 
and  are  rising.1  When  the  family  income  is 
not  that  of  the   "breadwinner"   alone,   it  is  a 

1  The  Nation  as  a  Business  Firm. 
29 


30        THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

very  flimsy  foundation  to  give  to  progress. 
But  even  on  such  a  foundation,  strengthened 
as  much  as  possible  by  generous  estimates  and 
by  inadmissible  statistical  methods,  Mr.  Mallock 
has  to  admit  that  350,000  families,  containing 
1,750,000  persons,  have  a  total  family  income 
of  £30  per  annum — a  sum  which  works  out  at 
a  fraction  over  2s.  3d.  per  head  per  week  from 
which  everything  must  be  paid.  There  are  in 
addition  1,200,000  with  an  average  family 
income  of  £94  per  annum.  In  this  figure  Mr. 
Mallock  includes  the  incomes  of  the  members 
of  these  families  who  are  living  out  as  domestic 
servants!  Without  them,  the  income  is  £71 
or  about  6s.  per  head  per  week,  an  altogether 
unsatisfactory  figure  and  a  somewhat  miserable 
one  even  if  it  were  earned  by  a  single  breadwin- 
ner. It  is  quite  inadequate  for  bringing  up 
a  family.  It  gives  no  margin  for  sickness  and 
unemployment,  and  from  it  can  hardly  be 
taken  a  rent  sufficient  to  keep  a  comfortable 
house  over  the  heads  of  the  group.  It  certainly 
is  insufficient  to  bear  the  cost  of  that  innocent 
recreation  and  luxury  which  go  to  improve  the 
quality  of  life.  Mr.  Mallcok  is  an  apologist, 
and  his  estimates  must  be  accepted  with  appro- 
priate care,  but  he  has  signally  failed  to  dis- 
prove the  assertions  that  a  substantial  percent- 
age of  our  people  have  incomes  inadequate  to 
enable  them  to  attend  to  their  animal  wants 
satisfactorily,  and  that  a  great  part  of  our  pov- 
erty arises  not  from  uneconomical  expenditure 
but  from  insufficient  income. 

Fortunately  figures  of  greater  scientific  value 
than   Mr.   Mallock's  are  at  our  disposal.     Mr. 


ECONOMIC  AND   INDUSTRIAL       31 

Booth's  and  Mr.  Rowntree's  investigations  have 
become  so  familiar  that  they  hardly  bear  quot- 
ing. Mr.  Booth  found  35.2  per  cent,  of  the 
people  of  the  north  and  east  of  London  living 
on  a  family  income  of  under  a  guinea  per  week; 
Mr.  Rowntree  found  that  of  the  people  of  York 
nearly  30  per  cent,  were  "living  in  poverty." 
Investigations  in  West  Ham  showed  that  only 
in  a  small  percentage  of  cases  did  married 
women  engage  in  home  work  when  their  hus- 
bands were  earning  enough  to  keep  their  fami- 
lies.1 Inquiries  conducted  in  Dundee,2  Nor- 
wich,3 and  elsewhere  substantiate  the  same 
conclusions.  Many  other  sets  of  figures  com- 
piled by  different  methods  are  available  and 
their  meaning  cannot  be  doubted.  For  instance 
an  investigation  by  Commissioner  Cadman,  late 
of  the  Salvation  Army,  found  that  amongst  the 
lowest  down  of  their  clientele,  55.8  per  cent, 
had  lost  their  grip  on  decency  owing  to  depres- 
sions in  trade  and  11.6  because  they  could  not 
tide  themselves  over  periods  of  sickness. 

These  facts  are  true  of  every  industrial  coun- 
try. Great  numbers  of  people  are  forced  to 
live  on  incomes  which  are  insufficient  to  enable 
them  to  make  good  their  daily  physiological 
waste  and  meet  the  ordinary  accidents  of  life 
like  sickness  and  unemployment. 

But  we  can  turn  to  another  group  of  facts, 
and  get  another  body  of  evidence  in  our  sup- 
port.    The  wages  of  the  woollen  operatives  in 

1  West  Ham:    A   Study.     By  E.  G.  Howarth  and  Mona 
Wilson. 

2  Report  on  Housing,  &c,  in  Dundee. 

3  Norwich:  A  Social  Study.     By  C.  B.  Hawkins. 


32        THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

Yorkshire  have  advanced  but  slightly  since 
1871,  in  some  of  the  leading  centres  like  Brad- 
ford, Leeds,  Batley  and  Dewsbury,  they  have 
actually  receded  since  1874.1  Mr.  Wood  has 
shown  that  for  about  half  a  century,  up  to 
1900,  wages  in  the  following  trades  have  not 
advanced:  ironfounders  in  Warrington,  Not- 
tingham, London,  Birmingham;  engineers  in 
Wolverhampton;  compositors  in  Iluddersfield, 
Manchester,  Reading;  masons,  painters,  plas- 
terers, slaters,  coopers,  in  the  South  of  Scot- 
land; ship-painters  in  Hull,  and  so  on.2  Then 
if  we  turn  to  the  figures  published  by  the  Board 
of  Trade  year  by  year,3  they  show  that  at  tin- 
end  of  1900,  amongst  the  larger  groups  of 
labour,  excluding  agricultural  labourers,  sean 
and  railway  servants,  nearly  £100,000  per  week 
less  were  paid  in  wages  than  in  1900,  whilst 
increases  in  1910  only  improved  the  1909  figures 
by  £14,000,  so  that  the  workers  to-day  are  still 
well  over  ISO, 000  per  week  less  well  off  in  respect 
to  wages  than  they  were  in   1900. 

Every  reliable  investigation  that  has  been 
conducted  into  our  Bocia]  conditions  reveals  an 
appalling  amount  of  poverty  and  a  still  more 
appalling  bitterness  in  the  struggle  for  life  under 
sordid  and  heartless  conditions.  Practically  the 
whole  of  the  vital  energy  of  more  than  half 
of  our  people  is  consumed  in  providing  bread 
and    butter   for    their   stomachs    and    a    shelter 

1  See  an  interesting  article  on  the  subject  in  the  Socialist 
Review,  Nov.  1910,  By  Henry  Willmott. 

1  Economic  Journal,  xi.,  pp.  151-6. 

*  Report  on  the  Changes  in  Hales  of  Wages  and  Hours  of 
Labour. 


ECONOMIC  AND  INDUSTRIAL       33 

for  their  heads,  and  then  they  do  not  always 
succeed.1 

Nor  is  the  reply  that  poverty  is  a  self-inflicted 
wound  very  decisive.  It  is  true  that  drunken- 
ness brings  misery  upon  individuals.  The  waste- 
ful man  must  come  to  grief  whether  he  be  rich 
or  poor.  But  intemperance — to  select  only  the 
most  frequently  discussed  source  of  personal 
poverty — is  not  the  cause  of  social  poverty. 
Its  chief  effect  is  to  select  the  vietims  of  pov- 
erty. For  there  come  to  all  slackness  of  work 
and  misfortunes  of  many  kinds,  and  the  most 
that  thriftless  expenditure  does  is  to  determine 
who  are  to  be  completely,  and  who  partially, 
wrecked  in  the  hard  times.  It  is  said  that  if 
every  penny  which  finds  its  way  into  the  pockets 
of  rich  and  poor  were  well  spent,  every  man 
would  face  the  rainy  day  with  an  umbrella 
over  his  head,  and  the  slack  time  with  some- 
thing in  the  savings  bank.  Only  to  a  small 
extent  is  this  true.  The  best  form  of  saving 
which  the  majority  of  our  working  classes  can 
practise  is  the  art  of  useful  expenditure  upon 
themselves  and  their  families.  Their  incomes 
are  too  small  to  bear  any  other  form  of  thrift. 
The  reason  why  so  many  of  those  who  practise 

1  American  conditions,  despite  the  newness  of  the  country 
and  the  vast  extent  of  its  territory,  show  the  same  features. 
One-eighth  of  the  families  of  the  I'uited  States  enjoy  seven- 
eighths  of  the  wealth  of  the  country;  and  investigations 
conducted  by  the  New  York  State  Conference  of  Charities 
and  Correction  in  1906-7,  by  the  Massachusetts  Bureau 
of  Statistics  and  by  private  inquirers  in  other  states  show 
that  great  masses  of  the  town  workers  of  America  have 
incomes  which  come  considerably  below  the  efficient  sub- 
sistence minimum. 


34        THE   SOCIALIST   MOVEMENT 

thrift — meaning  by  that,  saving — are  unattrac- 
tive and  even  repulsive,  is  that  they  have  not 
spent  enough  on  themselves  to  allow  their  per- 
sonalities to  grow.  They  have  been  banking 
not  real  savings  but  capital  which  they  ought 
to  have  spent  on  their  personal  development. 
They  are  hampering  their  own  growtli  by  choos- 
ing to  remain  under-nourished — especially  in 
mind.  The  true  practice  of  thrift  for  a  man 
with  a  family  and  thirty  shillings  per  week  as 
an  income,  is  not  niggardly  saving  but  wise 
expenditure.  Such  expenditure  would  increase 
the  volume  of  demand  for  productive  labour, 
but  it  would  not  put  an  end  to  unemployment 
or  to  slack  times  and  sickness.  During  these 
times  the  thriftless  man  will  suffer  most,  be- 
cause he  has  probably  destroyed  his  nerve  and 
skill  and  is  unreliable  to  boot,  and  because  he 
i^  exposed  straight  away  to  the  full  blast  of 
the  cutting  wind  of  adversity.  Hut  the  tem- 
perate man  is  also  discharged,  and  if  he  may  be 
rarely  seen  in  unemployed  marches,  he  is  found 
by  those  who  know  how  to  seek  him  in  his 
seelusion,  before  a  cold  grate  and  an  empty 
home.  The  cause  of  poverty  is  social;  but 
personal  conduct  often  determines  whether  this 
man  or  that  is  to  be  the  victim  and  how  deep 
the  poverty  is  to  be. 

Statistics  on  such  an  intricate  subject  as  the 
play  and  counter-play  of  social  and  personal 
causes  of  poverty  are  of  course  difficult  to  com- 
pile. But  various  authorities  have  attempted 
to  supply  them.  Commissioner  Cadman  says 
that  26.6  per  cent,  of  those  who  come  to  Sal- 
vation Army  Homes  have  been  wrecked  finan- 


ECONOMIC  AND  INDUSTRIAL       35 

cially  by  drink  and  gambling.  Mr.  Rowntree 
commits  himself  to  no  figures  regarding  York, 
but  puts  drink  and  gambling,  together  with 
bad  housekeeping,  as  the  first  of  the  causes 
which  produce  secondary  poverty  from  which 
13,000  persons  out  of  a  total  poverty-stricken 
population  of  20,000  are  suffering.  Mr.  Charles 
Booth  worked  out,  from  a  certain  number  of 
investigated  families,  that  14  per  cent,  of  the 
A  and  B  classes  of  poverty  was  caused  by  per- 
sonal habits,  and  13  per  cent,  of  classes  C  and 
D,  whilst  "conditions  of  employment"  ac- 
counted for  55  and  68  per  cent,  of  the  poverty 
in  these  classes  respectively.  I  would  be  the 
last  to  seek  to  diminish  the  evils  of  drunken- 
ness, but  it  must  be  reduced  to  its  proportions. 
The  Socialist  movement  in  practically  every 
country  in  the  world  has  declared  war  upon 
drink,  and  at  the  International  Congress  at 
Stuttgart  the  question  was  considered.  Nor 
must  it  be  forgotten  that  the  effect  of  social 
pressure  is  to  increase  the  activities  of  those 
cravings  and  appetites  which  reduce  individual 
efficiency  and  so  create  individual  poverty. 
Did  not  the  worldly-wise  writer  of  the  Proverbs  l 
say:  "Let  him  drink  and  forget  his  poverty 
and  remember  his  misery  no  more." 

As  we  have  traced  the  rise  of  the  democratic 
state,  so  we  must  now  trace  the  rise  of  the 
modern  industrial  state,  of  which  this  poverty 
is  a  result,  and  from  which  the  way  to  Socialism 
opens  out. 

1  Chap.  xxxi.  7. 


36        THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 


2.  Revolts  against  Poverty. 

Just  as  we  have  seen  that  the  demand  for 
individual  freedom  disturbed  the  feudal  com- 
munity, so  do  we  find  that  the  prevalance  of 
poverty  led  to  protests  against  economic  changes 
which  sometimes  ended  in  riot,  but  which  some- 
times produced  Utopias.  So  long  as  the  man 
was  a  serf  or  was  a  charge  OD  the  soil,  his  pov- 
erty was  accepted  as  his  lot,  because  it  rarely 
became  so  oppressive  a>  to  be  intolerable.  It 
was  lii-  status.  He  had  his  bed  and  his  food 
and  his  clothes,  and  he  expected  nothing  more. 
But  the  economic  state  of  villeinage  had  to 
pass.  Commerce  grew  between  market  and 
market,  ami  country  and  euimtry.  Profits  were 
made  l>v  bankers,  mannfaet  nrers  and  mer- 
chants.  The  aristocracy  planted  on  the  land 
temlnl  to  decay  <>n  account  of  new  economic 
and  political  conditions  and  the  consequent 
rise  of  a  plutocracy  of  wealth;  and  the  personal 
relations  between  squire  and  cottar  tended  to 
disappear  as  new  ways  of  using  land,  which 
were  more  profitable  to  the  owners  than  the 
old  ways,  offered  themselves.  As  some  writer 
once  said:  Agriculture  from  being  the  winning 
of  subsistence  became  a  making  of  profits.  In 
addition  to  this,  as  peace  began  to  settle  in  the 
land,  the  old  aristocracy  had  to  resort  to  extrav- 
agant expenditure  in  order  to  keep  up  appear- 
ances. Their  work  was  done  and  they  had  to 
fall  back  upon  badges  as  a  sign  of  authority 
and  status.  This  meant  money,  whilst  their 
old    economic    relations    meant    comparatively 


ECONOMIC  AND  INDUSTRIAL       37 

small  personal  incomes.  So  they  had  to  employ 
their  lands  in  such  a  way  as  would  yield  them 
a  higher  revenue.  Thus,  whilst  standing  by 
all  the  outward  appearances  and  the  political 
and  social-  structure  of  feudalism,  the  landed 
classes  abandoned  their  social  relationships  and 
followed  more  and  more  closely  the  profit- 
making  ways  of  the  capitalism  which  was  coming 
to  rule  the  land. 

The  first  uprising  of  the  poverty-stricken  in 
England  came  from  famine  and  preaching. 
Whilst  the  third  Edward  was  glorying  in  his 
shameful  extravagances  and  follies,  the  shadow 
of  plague  was  creeping  westward  over  Europe. 
At  the  end  of  1348  it  fell  upon  England.  Half 
the  population  died  and  social  life  was  para- 
lysed. The  fields  returned  to  their  original 
wildness.  The  very  beasts  sickened  and  died 
too.  After  the  horror  came  reaction.  For  a 
long  time  the  workman  had  been  drifting 
towards  the  status  of  a  hired  labourer,  and  was 
being  pushed  into  the  position  of  a  landless  and 
propertyless  man  without  a  guardian.  After 
the  plague,  he  found  himself  in  an  advanta- 
geous position,  for  he  was  a  man  whose  services 
were  sought,  and  not  one  who  was  trying  to 
find  an  employer.  He  forced  up  his  wages; 
in  his  moods  of  sportive  independence  or  care- 
less laziness  he  became  a  "sturdy  beggar." 
But  he  was  not  allowed  to  enjoy  the  advan- 
tages of  his  economic  position  for  long.  Legis- 
lation in  the  form  of  the  Statute  of  Labourers 
thrust  him  back  into  his  subordinate  and  ser- 
vile status.  His  political  impotence  rendered 
his    economic    strength    useless.     Civil    discord 


26853 1 


38        THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

ensued.  A  thousand  grievances  added  fuel 
to  the  fire.  The  memory  of  generations  of 
hardship  such  as  is  described  by  the  authors 
of  Piers  Plowman  put  rebellion  in  the  hearts  of 
the  people,  and  the  disturbances  called  the 
Peasants'   Revolt  occurred. 

A  similar  state  of  things  occurred  a  century 
and  a  half  later,  in  the  time  of  Henry  VIII. 
Ecclesiastical  property  had  been  secularised  and 
it  bore  no  longer  its  heavy  burden  of  charity. 
As  in  the  days  of  the  Peasants'  Rising  religion 
inflamed  want  and  quickened  a  sense  of  injus- 
tice. The  land  labourer  had  become  free,  and 
had  found  that  freedom  meant  that  he  was 
allowed  to  wander  on  the  roads  and  starve. 
Il<-  now  had  no  certain  income.  Lands  were 
let  for  sheep  rearing,  common  fields  and  wastes 
were  enclosed,  tillage  was  being  greatly  reduced. 
An  address  to  the  king  and  parliament,  written 
at  tlit*  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century,  tells 
how  there  were  "fewer  plows  by  forty  in  Ox- 
fordshire. Each  plow  kept  six  persons.  Now 
then-  is  nothing  but  sheep.  These  240  persons 
must  live — where  shall  they  go?  Some  of  these 
are  driven  to  beg,  some  to  steal."  l  A  revolu- 
tion, greater  than  the  later  change  which  is 
known  as  the  Industrial  Revolution,  then  hap- 
pened. "The  production  of  wealth,  instead  of 
being  merely  a  means  of  subsistence,  became  an 
end  in  itself  or  a  means  to  political  influence." 
The  spirit  of  commercialism  had  taken  a  firm 
hold  of  England.  The  landlords  laid  their 
hands  on  every  acre  they  could  appropriate, 
and  imposed  as  large  rents  upon  them  as  they 

1  Early  English  Text  Society,  Extra  Series,  XJH. 


ECONOMIC  AND  INDUSTRIAL       39 

could  get.  Employers  placed  impediments  in 
the  way  of  their  journeymen  starting  in  busi- 
ness, substituted  juveniles  for  journeymen,  and 
concentrated  their  attention  on  their  bank 
balances.*  Rents  were  raised,  wages  reduced, 
privileges  curtailed.  In  the  introduction  to  his 
Utopia,  Sir  Thomas  More  describes  the  state 
of  the  people.  The  rich  kept  a  train  of  idle 
serving  men,  and  turned  the  poor  who  became 
sick  or  old  out  of  doors  because  they  could  not 
maintain  both.  Thus  the  number  of  robberies 
increased.  The  poor  man  grew  ragged  and 
pale-faced,  and  then  no  one  would  employ  him. 
The  argument  that  large  numbers  of  fighting 
men  had  to  be  maintained  is  ridiculed  by  More, 
and  met.  Both  in  the  statement  and  the  reply 
these  paragraphs  are  wonderfully  modern.  But 
the  greatest  grievance  of  all  was:  "Your  sheep 
that  were  wont  to  be  so  meek  and  tame,  and 
so  small  eaters,  now,  as  I  hear  say,  be  become 
so  great  devourers,  and  so  wild,  that  they  eat 
up  and  swallow  down  the  very  men  themselves. 
They  consume,  destroy  and  devour  whole  fields, 
houses  and  cities:  for  look,  in  what  parts  of 
the  realm  doth  grow  the  finest,  and  therefore 
dearest  wool — there  noblemen  and  gentlemen, 
yea,  and  certain  abbots,  holy  men  no  doubt, 
not  contenting  themselves  with  the  yearly 
revenues  and  profits  that  were  wont  to  grow 
to  their  forefathers  and  predecessors  of  their 
lands,  not  being  content  that  they  live  in  rest 
and  pleasure,  nothing  profiting — yea,  much  noy- 
ing  the  weal-public,  leave  no  ground  for  tillage: 
they  inclose  all  into  pastures;  they  throw  down 
houses;   they  pluck  down  towns  and  leave  noth- 


40        THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

ing  standing,  but  only  the  church  to  be  made 
a  sheep-house."  The  increasing  numbers  of 
sheep  did  not,  however,  lead  to  a  reduction  in 
the  price  of  wool  or  of  mutton,  because  "they 
be  almost  all  come  into  a  few  rich  men's  hands." 
It  was  also  more  profitable  to  buy  store  cattle 
abroad  and  fatten  them  in  England,  and  this, 
too,  meant  less  work  and  village  depopulati on. 
"Thus,  t lie  unreasonable  covetousneas  of  a  few 
hath  turned  that  thing  to  the  utter  undoing  of 
your  inland,  in  the  which  thing  the  chief  felicity 
of  your  realm  did  consist."  More  refers  to 
hospitality,  which  the  poor  could  no  longer 
afford  and  the  rich  wne  making  too  lavish  and 
vicious. 

This  i^  the  opening  of  a  new  epoch  in  the 
history  of  English  poverty.  The  landless  man 
appears  for  good.  The  ownership  of  the  soil 
no  longer  carries  with  it  the  heavy  social  obli- 
gations to  maintain  men  on  it.  The  labourer 
becomes  ;i  mere  convenience  in  profit  making, 
to  be  employed  when  it  suits  the  landlord  and 
farmer,  and  to  be  turned  upon  the  road  when 
his  labour  is  not  profitable. 

Moreover,  both  preceding  the  Black  Death 
and  in  the  time  of  Sir  Thomas  More,  the  griev- 
ances of  urban  unemployment  had  been  felt. 
Parliament  had  to  consider  it,  and  in  More's 
days  there  was  an  agitation,  which  smacks  of 
very  modern  error,  on  the  ground  that  English- 
men were  being  supplanted  by  foreigners,  and 
there  were,  also  very  appropriately  to  complete 
a  parallel  with  modern  conditions,  May  Day 
riots  in  London. 

But  one  other  epochal   change  had   to  pass 


ECONOMIC  AND  INDUSTRIAL       41 

over  England  before  Socialism  arose.  England 
had  to  undergo  the  Industrial  Revolution. 
The  world  had  to  become  the  market  for  our 
goods  and  the  source  of  our  supply  of  food  and 
raw  material.  The  forces  of  nature  had  to 
be  harnessed  to  production,  and  mechanical 
contrivance  had  to  supplement  manual  labour. 
The  people  had  to  be  ingathered  into  great 
centres,  their  labour  had  to  be  subdivided  and 
co-ordinated  in  great  factories.  Capital  had 
to  be  concentrated  and  the  day  of  the  large 
industry  come,  before  Socialism,  as  a  scientific 
hope  and  a  practical  guide,  was  possible. 

3.  The  Rise  of  Capitalism. 

The  Industrial  Revolution  is  the  term  applied 
to  the  change  which  came  over  industry  when 
mechanical  appliances  led  to  the  factory  sys- 
ttem  and  the  specialising  of  factory  labour. 
There  were  rich  men  before  that  happened, 
but  they  belonged  to  the  class  of  merchants 
and  financiers  rather  than  to  that  of  manu- 
facturers. And  when  the  Industrial  Revolution 
came,  the  manufacturer  was  not  specially 
wealthy.  He  lived,  as  a  rule,  like  a  workman 
enjoying  a  substantial  income.  But  wealth  rap- 
idly accumulated  in  his  hands.  He  drew  away, 
both  in  his  social  status  and  his  ideals,  from  the 
people  from  whom  he  came.  He  formed  a 
plutocratic  class  all  by  himself.  The  influence 
of  the  change  was  enormous.  The  aristocracy 
opened  its  doors  to  the  new  rich,  for  the  aris- 
tocracy needed  money.  The  exploiters  of  the 
virgin  soil  of  America,  its  speculators,  its  finan- 


42        THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

ciers,  supplied  the  incomes  which  our  aristoc- 
racy required;  our  own  rich  families  acquired 
titles.  Nominally  birth  was  retained  as  the 
hall  mark  of  aristocracy,  but  wealth  was  in 
reality  its  foundation.  Thus  it  has  come  about 
that  the  social  effect  of  the  Industrial  Revolu- 
tion has  been  the  establishment  of  customs  and 
distinctions  which  depend  solely  upon  the  pos- 
session of  wealth,  and  which  have  led  to  the 
use  of  that  wealth  in  selfish  and  anti-social 
directions.  Wealth  divorced  from  social  respon- 
sibility, but  held  and  used  purely  as  a  personal 
session,  has  divided  society  into  the  two 
great  separate  kingdoms  of  rich  and  poor,  each 
Giving  its  own  life  and  very  rarely  coming  into 
<•  mtacl  with  the  Other.  Slumming,  charitable 
activities,  patronising  interferences,  have  taken 
the  place  of  those  personal  relationships  which 
used  to  exist  between  hut  and  hall  before  the 
feeling  of  BOcial  solidarity  was  destroyed  by 
a  huge  factory  and  town  population,  the  clear- 
ance of  the  people  from  the  soil,  and  the  class 
distinctions  which  became  the  chief  desire  of 
the  plebeian  rich.  Thus  public  spirit  and  re- 
sponsibility have  become  weakened,  and  we 
have  less  guarantee  than  ever  that  the  control 
of  wealth  is  to  be  other  than  purely  selfish. 
Moreover,  whilst  the  moral  relationships  be- 
tween rich  and  poor  have  been  weakening,  the 
power  of  wealth  has  been  increasing  by  leaps 
and  bounds.  This  increase  must  be  traced  out, 
as  it  is  an  important  link  in  the  chain  of  socialist 
evolution. 

Although    the    conflict    between    capital    and 
labour  began  very  early  in  our  industrial  his- 


ECONOMIC  AND  INDUSTRIAL       43 

tory,  and  the  employer  never  seems  to  have 
been  unwilling  to  beat  down  wages  to  competi- 
tive levels,1  it  was  not  till  the  eighteenth  century 
had  well  advanced  to  its  close  that  the  two 
classes  of  capitalists  and  workmen  became  sepa- 
rated; that  the  journeyman  began  to  become 
obsolete,  and  that  the  chance  of  a  substantial 
proportion  of  the  wage-earners  becoming  em- 
ployers in  due  time  tended  to  disappear.  Me- 
chanical invention  increased  the  amount  of 
capital  required  in  business,  the  extension  of 
the  market  intensified  competition,  and  led  to 
the  organisation  of  a  huge  and  a  complicated 
system  of  exchange,  factory-methods  of  work 
narrowed  the  skill  and  the  outlook  of  the  wage- 
earners;  thus  the  separation  between  the  two 
economic  classes  became  permanent  and  well- 
defined.  In  the  days  of  the  hand-loom  and  the 
spinning-wheel  there  were  poverty,  child  labour, 
and  social  distress,  but  the  conditions  under 
which  they  occurred  were  not  so  crushing,  and 
they  did  not  throw  such  a  long  and  a  black 
shadow  across  extended  periods  of  life  as  they 
were  destined  to  do  later. 

The  history  of  this  movement  of  the  separa- 
tion of  economic  classes  is,  first  of  all,  a  history 

1  For  instance,  Maeaulay  refers  in  his  History  of  England 
(vol  i.,  p.  £04)  to  a  ballad  sung  on  the  streets  of  Leeds 
and  Norwich  and  now  preserved  in  the  British  Museum, 
as  "the  vehement  and  bitter  cry  of  labour  against  capital. 
It  describes  the  good  old  times  when  every  artisan  employed 
in  the  woollen  manufacture  lived  as  well  as  a  farmer.  But 
these  times  were  past.  Sixpence  a  day  was  now  all  that 
could  be  earned  by  hard  labour  at  the  loom.  If  the  poor 
complained  that  they  could  not  live  on  such  a  pittance, 
they  were  told  that  they  were  free  to  take  it  or  leave  it." 


44        THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

of  the  guilds.  Originally  a  commercial  union 
with  religious  sentiments  and  some  political 
powers,  the  growing  division  of  function  between 
capital  and  labour  destroyed  the  industrial 
catholicity  of  the  first  type  of  guild,  the  mer- 
chant guild,  and  raised  opposition  to  it  amongst 
the  craftsmen.  To  begin  with,  the  craftsmen 
won,  but  the  gulf  between  the  capitalist  who 
had  wealth,  and  the  labourer  who  had  only 
skill  widened  apace,  and  the  guilds  again  drifted 
into  positions  of  economic  privilege  and  antag- 
onised the  poorer  workmen.  The  merchant 
guild  had  given  place  to  the  craft  guild,  quali- 
fication for  membership  in  which  consisted 
mainly  in  having  served   an  apprenticeship   to 

a  craft  or  mystery.  The  function  of  the  guild 
Was  to  regulate  the  trade  in  the  interest  of  the 
craftsmen.  But  all  such  organisations  have 
an  evolution.  They  arise  to  satisfy  a  need; 
they  succeed;  they  decay  through  a  period  of 
abuse.  Thus  it  happened  that  the  craft  guild, 
too,  became  a  close  corporation,  and  its  powers 
to  regulate  trade  were  used  for  the  purpose  of 
securing  monopolies — a  movement  exactly  par- 
allel to  that  of  modern  capitalism,  though  the 
methods  differ.  For  two  centuries,  ending  about 
the  middle  of  the  sixteenth,  the  craft  guild  rose 
and  sank.  Outside  it  had  grown  up  a  new  class 
of  men  who  depended  upon  hire,  who  were  not 
a  craft  aristocracy,  who  could  neither  amass 
money  nor  gather  together  stock,  who  had  no 
land  and  who  often  worked  with  supplied  capi- 
tal. The  guilds  interfered  with  this  class,  not 
for  the  purpose  of  helping  it,  but  of  suppressing 
it.     Entrance  fees   were   raised   against   it.     By 


ECONOMIC  AND   INDUSTRIAL       45 

the  end  of  the  fourteenth  century,  the  journey- 
men, accepting  their  status  as  the  final  one, 
which  they  were  likely  to  experience,  and, 
assuming  that  the  crafts  were  barred  against 
them,  had  formed  some  fraternities  of  their 
own.1  By'  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century 
the  guild  had  broken  down,  and  legislation 
began  to  take  the  place  of  its  statutes.  But  the 
landless  and  property  less  hired  servant  became 
common,  and  he  in  turn  formed  his  guild  in 
the  shape  of  a  trade  union,  when  the  factory 
system  and  the  town  system  gave  him  a  chance 
to  do  so,  and  the  final  separation  of  the  labour 
and  the  capitalist  classes  compelled  him  to 
abandon  the  assumption  that  his  industrial 
advancement  was  more  likely  than  not.  The 
employer  had  moved  into  another  social  stra- 
tum, and  "born  a  workman,  die  a  workman" 
became  the  guiding  thought  of  the  labourer's 
life. 

Up  to  the  time  of  the  Industrial  Revolution 
the  capitalist  producing  class  was  not  a  rich 
class.  The  industrial  system  was  then  domes- 
tie,  and  the  craftsmen,  as  a  rule,  owned  their 
own  tools,  just  as  a  carpenter  owns  his  kit  to-day. 
The  competition  of  the  power-loom  with  the 
hand-loom  in  cotton  manufacture  was  not 
severe  up  to  1812,  and  as  late  as  1834  there 
were  only  733  power-loom  workers  to  7,000 
or    8,000    hand-loom    workers.     In    the    woollen 

1  In  1387  the  "serving  men  of  the  London  eord-wainers " 
were  accused  of  trying  to  form  an  independent  fraternity, 
and  similar  complaint  was  made  against  the  saddlers  in 
1396,  and  in  141.3  against  the  tailors.  (Webb,  History  of 
Trade  Unionism,  pp.  2-3.) 


46        THE   SOCIALIST    MOVEMENT 

and  linen  industry  power-looms  were  in  little 
use  before  1840.  In  spinning,  mechanical  power 
and  factory  conditions  came  somewhat  earlier. 
In  ls:;:'>  there  were  three  spinning  mills  in  Man- 
chester, employing  1,400  hands  each,  eight  em- 
ploying from  500  to  900,  eight  from  :500  to  500, 
and  17  from  100  to  .".00.'  Mr.  Andrew,  in  his 
Annals  of  Oldham,  tells  of  his  uncle,  who  owned 

a  carding  engine  in  a  factory  (power  was  then 
let  out  to  individual  owners  of  engines  some- 
thing  in   the   way   that    power   i-   still   let  out  to 

the  owners  of  stands  in  Sheffield  cutlery  work- 
shops in  ISO!*,  and  who  created  "a  great  hue 
and    cry    in    the    town"    whin    he    became    the 

owner  of  a  second. 

Professor    Marshall    illustrates   this   point    by 

comparing  the  relative  value  of  tools  ami   wages 

now  and  formerly.  The  textile  operative  used 
to  employ   tools  equivalent    in   price  to  but  a 

few  month-  of  hi-  labour,  whilst  in  modern 
times  there  is  ;,  capital  in  plant  of  about  £200 
for  each  man,  woman  and  child  in  a  textile 
factory.  The  cost  of  a  steam  ship  is  equiva- 
lent to  the  price  of  the  labour  for  ten  years  i  ! 
those  who  work  her.  whilst  the  railway  ser- 
vants operate  capital  valued  at  perhaps  twenty 
years  of   their  w  In    1M.">    MVulloch  esti- 

mated that  the  fixed  capital  in  good  cotton 
mills  was  no  more  than  equal  to  two  years' 
wages  of  an  operative;  Marshall's  figures  work 
out  at  five  years'  wages. 

This  brings  us  to  a  new  stage. 

1  Butterworth.  History  of  Oldham,  p.  118. 

1  Principles  of  Economics,  pp.  302-3,  4th  edition. 


ECONOMIC   AND   INDUSTRIAL       47 


4.   The  Fulfilment  of  Capitalism. 

The  increase  in  the  amount  of  capital  used 
led  to  a  revolution  in  the  ownership  of  it.  In- 
dustrial capital  used  to  he  owned  by  those 
who  used  it.  The  employer  was  the  capitalist. 
But  obviously  one  man  cannot  own  the  Mid- 
land Railway,  or  one  of  the  huge  modern  en 
neering  concerns  1  i k<-  Armstrong,  Whitworth  & 
Co.  So  it  has  inevitably  happened  that  the 
capital  required  for  these  huge  undertakings  is 

procured  from  a  wide  area  <»f  capitalists.  Thus 
the  limited  liability,  or  joint  .stock,  company 
arose  to  mark  a  further  stage  in  capitalist 
evolution. 

The  constitution  of  these  companies  is  quite 
familiar.     Their   capital    is   raised    in    the   form 

of  shares,  it  is  controlled  by  a  board  of  direc- 
tors, generally  by  a  managing  director,  and 
those  who  have  provided  it  have  practically 
no  voice  in   the   management    of   the   business. 

Shareholders'  meetings  are  held  occasionally, 
but  apart  from  the  fact  that  many  shareholders 
never  attend  these  meetings,  the  power  which 
the  shareholder  has  does  not  amount  to  much 
more  than  to  express  gratitude  or  to  grumble. 
Except  at  a  crisis  the  directors,  working  within 
the  bounds  of  the  articles  of  association,  hold 
an  absolute  authority. 

Thus,  one  of  the  first  results  of  the  concen- 
tration of  capital  in  industrial  undertakings 
has  been  the  supplanting  of  the  individual  and 
responsible  capitalist  by  the  official  agent  who 
represents   many   capitalists.     The   "captain   of 


48        TIIE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

industry"  is  thus  no  more  a  man  working  with 
his  own  capital,  but  an  agent  working  with 
other  people's  capital,  and  the  capitalist  him- 
self is  ceasing  to  be  a  business  man  and  is  be- 
coming a  mere  financier.  This  change  from 
personal  to  impersonal  capitalism,  from  own- 
ership control  to  agency  control,  is  another 
important  link  in  the  chain  of  socialist  evolution 
and  argument. 

One  erroneous  deduction  from  this  change 
ought  to  be  disposed  of  at  once.  It  is  often 
assumed  that  under  a  system  of  joint  stock 
companies  the  dividends  and  profits  previously 
madt  by  a  small  class  of  industrial  capitalists 
are  spread  over  a  wider  field,  and  a  better 
national  distribution  is  thus  secured.  Elderly 
ladies  with  small  savings  get  an  income  from 
building  societies,  clergymen  eke  out  modest 
incomes  derived  from  their  calling  by  sharing 
in  the  profits  of  brewery  companies  and  tied 
houses,  clerks  dabble  in  the  gains  of  rubber 
companies,  and  so  on.  This,  however,  does 
not  mean  nearly  so  much  as  appears  on  the 
face  of  it.  The  list  of  shareholders  in  public 
companies  \a  long,  but  the  duplicates  are  enor- 
mous. No  thorough  attempt  has  ever  been 
made  to  eliminate  these  duplicates  so  that  we 
may  know  what  number  of  separate  individuals 
have  invested  their  money  in  these  companies, 
but,  judging  from  one's  personal  knowledge, 
the  net  number  of  investors  must  be  very  sub- 
stantially smaller  than  the  gross  number.  The 
shareholding  financier  in  his  turn  becomes  a 
class  with  a  solid  nucleus  of  great  controlling 
magnates  and  a  more  or  less  unimportant  fringe 
of  comparatively  poor  people. 


ECONOMIC  AND  INDUSTRIAL      49 

Moreover,  it  is  clearly  proved  by  every  official 
and  reliable  publication  that  wealth  continues 
to  accumulate  at  one  end  of  society,  and  that 
whilst  the  middle  slowly  improves,  the  other 
extreme  is  either  stationary  or  is  losing  ground. 
Thus,  on  'an  average  for  the  five  years  up  to 
1903-4  l  the  net  value  of  dutiable  estates  left 
at  death  was  £'-276,000,000,  and  of  these  only 
17,000  were  of  less  value  than  £100.  For  1 1  it- 
year  1909-10,  the  net  value  of  these  estates 
was  £283,660,000,  and  the  total  of  the  71  estates 
of  a  quarter  of  a  million  and  over  was  not  less 
than  £59,160,000.  Though  it  is  true  that  over 
long  periods  the  condition  of  the  better  class 
of  artisan  and  the  lower  middle  class  improves, 
it  is  subject  to  considerable  fluctuation  owing 
to  times  of  unemployment  and  bad  trade,  and 
to  increases  in  the  cost  of  living.  To-day,  at 
the  end  of  1910,  these  middle  social  strata  are 
not  so  well  off  as  they  were  at  the  beginning 
of  the  century.  There  have  been  losses  in 
wages  and  rises  in  prices  in  the  interval,  and 
rents  continue  to  take  more  and  more  out  of 
working-class  pockets.  Relatively  to  the  mod- 
ern combinations  of  capital,  combinations  of 
labour  tend  to  weaken,  and  the  upward  pressure 
which  the  workman  can  exert  on  his  status  is 
less  effective  than  it  was. 

Nor  must  we  forget  that  the  joint  stock  com- 
pany means  that  every  industrial  improvement 
is  capitalised,  and  that,  in  consequence,  the 
amount  of  capital  borne  by  industry  tends  to 
keep  pace  with  profits  so  that  labour  finds  it 
increasingly    difficult    to    secure    an    improving 

1  Richet  and  Poverty,  p.  48,  Chiozza-Money. 


50        THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

share  in  national  wealth.  Any  successful  lim- 
ited liability  company  supplies  an  illustration 
of  this  argument.  Let  us  suppose  that  a  com- 
pany is  floated  with  a  capital  of  i>20,000,  and 
that  it  pays  a  dividend  of  10  per  cent.  Under 
the  old  system  of  the  employing  capitalist, 
a  portion  of  this  10  per  cent,  was  available 
for  increased  wages.  But  under  the  public 
company  system  a  shareholder  Bella  his  snares 
at  perhaps  double  the  price  he  paid  for  them. 
Thus,  although  the  business  has  never  absorbed 
more  than  a  capital  of  £90,000,  it  is  in   reality 

carrying  ■  boroen  <>f  £40,000;  nominally  it 
is  paying  10  net  cent.,  it  ii  actually  paying  its 

new  shareholders  only  5  per  cent.  The  margins 
arc  immediately  capitalised;  profits  are  not 
available  for  improving  the  business  itself,  nor 
for  increasing  the  wages  of  the  employ 
rapid  capitalisation  acta  ai  a  >ponge  and  sinks 
up  the  life  sap  of  the  enterprise.  This  can  be 
Been  by  the  study  of  any  handbook  on  public 
companies  which  gives  the  actual  dividends 
paid  on  the  current  price  of  stock.  These 
figures  work  out  at  something  about  4  per  cent. 
Over-capitalisation  is  the  aired  result  of  the 
joint  stock  phase  of  capitalist  control.  It  has 
been  estimated  that  the  over-capitalisation  of 
American  railroads  is  from  50  to  200  per  cent. 
of  their  actual  value.  The  Sugar  Refining 
Company  is  capitalised  at  three  or  four  times 
its  actual  value,  the  Felt  Company  at  ten  times, 
the  Steel  and  Wire  Company  at  three  times, 
the  Standard  Oil  Company  at  six  times.  Our 
own  large  companies  are  not  quite  so  free  to 
over-capitalise  themselves  as  those  of  America, 


ECONOMIC  AND   INDUSTRIAL       51 

owing  to  our  Free  Trade  system,  but  our  rail- 
ways, our  shipping  combines,  our  large  stores, 
some  of  our  manufacturing  trusts,  are  carrying 
far  too  heavy  financial  responsibilities,  and  the 
public  suffer  greviously  in  consequence. 

Thus  the  weight  of  capital  on  industry  be- 
comes excessive,  the  exploiting  investor  becomes 
all-powerful,  and  though  the  statistics  of  in- 
comes may  improve  in  appearance,  as  a  matter 
of  fact  a  system  of  distribution  is  being  estab- 
lished which  must  ultimately  produce  impov- 
erishment for  every  creative  factor  in  national 
prosperity.1 


5.   The  Small  Capitalist. 

In    this    way    the    trust    grows     and     another 
stage  begins.    Capital  is  carnivorous  and  preys 

upon  itself.     Competition  is  self-destructive.-'     A 

1  This  was  never  put  with  more  honest  and  callows  candour 
than  by  the  President  of  tin-  American  Sugar  Trust,  Mr. 
II.   0.    Bavemeyer,    when   examined   before   the   American 

Industrial  Commission.  "The  policy  <>f  the  American  Sugar 
Refining  Company."  be  Said,  "is  to  protect  its  trade,  and  if 
it  resulted  in  crushing  a  competitor  it  is  no  concern  of  the 
American  Company;  if  be  gets  in  the  press,  that  is  bis  affair, 

DOt  ours."  Then  he  was  asked:  "Ami  if  any  one  interferes 
with  the  business,  profits,  or  competition  of  the  American 
Sugar  Refining  Company,  it  is  its  policy  to  prevent  it  if 
possible?"  He  answered:  "By  lowering  profits  to  defy 
it."  "And  if  it  results  in  crushing  him  out?"  "That  is 
his  affair." 

*  Perhaps  the  most  conclusive  proof  of  this  argument 
has  been  supplied  by  Mr.  Mallock  in  a  book  written  with 
the  intention  of  disproving  it.  In  The  Xation  as  a  Business 
Firm,  Mr.  Mallock  analyses  national  income  for  the  purpose 
of  showing  that  it  is  better  distributed  than  it  was,  and 
that  those  who  have  told  us  that  it  is  very  inequitably  dis- 


52        THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

point  is  reached  in  the  concentration  of  capital 
when  war  between  rival  firms  entails  such  loss 
and  such  risk  that  peace  is  signed  between  them. 
They  either  define  the  limits  of  their  activities, 
as  a  certain  well-known  thread  combine  has 
divided  the  great  markets  of  the  world  between 
its  various  sections,  or  they  pool  their  profits 
or  come  to  some  other  mutual  arrangement 
regarding  their  disposal,  or  they  amalgamate 
under  one  management  like  the  American  Steel 
Trust.  They  also  proceed  to  control  subsidiary 
industries — as  the  Steel  Trust  controls  not  only 
rolling  mills  and  furnaces,  but  iron  ore  quarries 
and  steamship  and  railway  lines  required  for 
the  transport  of  its  material.  So  the  grip  of 
capital  upon  industry  tightens,  and  the  empire 
of  finance  widens. 

We  are  sometimes  told  that  along  with  this 
concentration  there  is  also  a  growth  of  small 
businesses.  But  regarding  this  point,  two  ob- 
servations have  to  be  made.  A  great  bu'k  of 
these  businesses  are  casual.  They  are  kept 
going  by  consumers  who  have  special  needs — 
little  shops  keeping  open  late,  shops  that  give 
credit,  shops  that  deal  in  special  lines,  small 
manufacturers   who   for   some   reason   or   other 

tributed  are  wrong.  He  deals  with  family  incomes  only. 
This  in  itself  is  open  to  grave  objection  from  the  scientific 
point  of  view,  and  he  further  stretches  figures  and  argu- 
ments in  order  to  make  his  families  as  affluent  as  he  possi- 
bly can.  But  what  are  his  conclusions?  They  are  that 
855,000  rich  people  take  £400,000,000  per  annum,  that 
12,150,000  comfortable  people  take  £571,000,000,  and  that 
29,895,000  wage-earners  take  £773,000,000  per  annum.  This 
apology  for  the  existing  order  sounds  little  better  than  a 
confession  of  the  truth  of  all  the  condemnations  that  have 
been  uttered  against  it. 


ECONOMIC  AND  INDUSTRIAL       53 

produce  economically,  or  who  are  engaged  in 
work  that  does  not  require  much  capital  or 
that  does  not  depend  upon  machinery,  or  that 
is  artistic  and,  therefore,  individual  and  not 
mechanical  in  its  nature.  The  second  obser- 
vation is  that  the  small  capitalist,  even  though 
he  may  increase  in  numbers,  diminishes  in 
industrial  importance.  More  and  more  abso- 
lute in  trade  and  commerce  becomes  the  rule 
of  the  large  capitalist,  the  syndicate,  the  trust, 
the  universal  provider.  He  will  never  gather 
all  trade  unto  himself.  Indeed,  one  can  foresee 
that  with  an  improvement  in  taste  and  a  strength- 
ening of  individuality,  machine  production  of 
articles  of  personal  use  will  diminish  rather 
than  increase;  but  even  then,  the  facilities  for 
transport  and  the  convenience  of  great  central 
stores,  like  the  modern  Whiteley's,  will  secure 
the  survival  of  capitalist  concentration  in  the 
distribution  of  these  articles  of  taste,  and  a 
concentrated  system  of  distribution  will  secure 
a  concentrated  system  of  production.  For  in- 
stance, the  "artistic'  productions  in  cabinet- 
making  sold  in  some  of  our  department  stores 
are  made  in  workshops  which  themselves  are 
small,  but  which  depend  for  their  existence 
solely  upon  the  patronage  of  these  stores.  The 
warehouse  system  in  the  boot  and  shoe  trade 
is  of  the  same  nature.  Hundreds  of  small  manu- 
facturers bring  their  products  once,  or  oftener, 
a  week  to  these  buying  warehouses  connected 
with  thousands  of  centrally  controlled  shops 
open  all  over  the  country.  The  manufacturer 
remains  a  "small"  man,  he  depends  upon  the 
warehouses    for    his    existence,    he    is   generally 


54        THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

financed  by  them,  his  profits  are  often  not 
more  than  wages,  he  is  practically  in  the  posi- 
tion of  an  employee,  his  profits  are  cut  down 
by  an  operation  of  economic  law  which,  in  re- 
spect to  him,  is  far  less  curbed  and  controlled 
than  it  is  in  respect  to  the  ordinary  factory 
workman  who  is  a  member  of  a  trade  union. 
The  statistics  of  independent  capitalists  and 
employers  must  therefore  be  read  with  much 
reservation,  or  they  will  convey  very  false 
meanings. 

6.  Summary. 

We  are  now  in  a  position  to  summarise  the 
processes  of  the  evolution  of  capitalism  during 
the  Industrial  Revolution,  and  to  state  the  law 
of  thai  evolution. 

Capitalist  industry  begins  with  competition, 
and  the  law  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest  comes 
at  once  into  operation.  From  this  emerges  the 
law  of  concentration  and  co-ordination.  Com- 
petition ends  in  the  domination  of  the  sur- 
viving few,  and  in  the  widening  of  the  sphere 
of  control  of  the  capitalist  unit.  Trades  which 
depend  upon  each  other  tend  to  be  organised 
together  and  to  be  controlled  as  one  unit. 

But  whilst  this  concentration  of  control  is 
proceeding,  the  employer  working  with  his  own 
capital  tends  to  disappear;  the  investor  comes 
upon  the  stage,  industrial  capital  is  drawn, 
not  from  one  bank  balance  but  from  many 
bank  balances,  and  the  control  of  industrial 
capital,  and  hence  of  industry,  passes  into 
the  hands   of  agents.     The  industrial   mechan- 


ECONOMIC  AND  INDUSTRIAL       55 

ism  ceases  to  be  personal  and  becomes  imper- 
sonal. It  is  a  hierarchy  of  managers  and 
directors. 

That  is  the  law  of  capitalist  evolution,  and 
at  that '  point  we  now  find  ourselves.  The 
problem  with  which  we  are  faced  is  not  how 
to  maintain  competition,  but  how  to  control 
monopoly. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE   ECONOMIC    FAILURE   OF   CAPITALISM 

We  are  now  in  a  position  to  discuss  the  prac- 
tical working  of  capitalist  industry.  We  start 
from  the  assumption  that  the  processes  of  pro- 
duction arc  undertaken  for  the  purpose  of  min- 
istering to  the  needs  of  the  people.  Clothes 
arc  made  to  clothe,  houses  to  house,  food  prep- 
aration^ to  feed;  the  products  of  foreign  lands 
are  imported  to  add  to  our  comforts.  The  test 
which  musl  be  always  imposed  upon  any  sys- 
tem of  production   is:     Does  it   fulfil   those  ends? 

And  that  musl  i>e  supplemented  by  another 
test:  Does  the  system  under  consideration  do 
it>  work  economically  or  wastefully?  Let  us 
apply  the  second  test  first  of  all. 

1.  Rent. 

We  shall  arrive  at  clear  ideas  on  this  point 
most  readily  and  conveniently  if  we  consider 
how  various  economic  classes  gain  an  income, 
and  we  shall  deal  with  the  owner  of  land — the 
rent  receiver — first  of  all. 

Income  from  land  is  not  of  the  nature  of 
reward  for  services  rendered.  It  used  to  be. 
Land  was  granted  by  the  sovereign  to  his 
captains  who,  in  return  for  their  possessions, 
rendered   military  service  to  the  state,  and   in 

56 


FAILURE  OF  CAPITALISM  57 

addition  paid  certain  taxes  so  as  to  provide 
the  king — who  was  the  embodiment  of  the 
state — with  what  income  he  required.  The  land 
was  then  held  in  trust  for  the  state,  and  that 
theory  underlies  the  whole  of  our  ancient  land 
legislation  and  taxation.  But  as  the  character 
of  the  state  changed,  the  land-owning  trustee 
was  transformed — or,  strictly  speaking,  trans- 
formed himself — into  an  ordinary  owner.  His 
obligations  were  diminished  and  disappeared, 
his  special  taxation  was  whittled  down  and, 
though  legal  and  judicial  theory  retained  its 
ancient  assumptions,  the  practice  grew  up  of 
treating  the  land  as  the  subject  of  ordinary 
private  possession. 

Now,  it  is  from  the  land  that  we  derive  all 
the  primary  raw  materials.  It  is  the  soil  which 
the  agriculturist  needs,  it  contains  the  ores 
and  the  minerals  of  all  our  vast  mining,  quarry- 
ing, smelting  trades;  upon  it  must  be  built 
our  factories,  our  warehouses,  our  houses;  it 
is  still,  with  the  exception  of  the  high  seas, 
the  foundation  of  our  transport  industry.  If 
it  were  closed  against  us,  every  industry  in 
the  country  would  be  paralysed  and  we  should 
die.  Upon  this  fact,  income  from  land  de- 
pends. "I  can  prevent  you  from  working, 
from  building,  from  mining,  from  living,"  says 
the  landowner.  "From  the  proceeds  of  our 
labour  and  our  skill,"  reply  the  rest  of  the 
community,  "we  are  willing  to  pay  you  to 
allow  us  to  work,  and  build,  and  mine,  and  live." 
And  so  rent  is  paid  and  the  landowner  gets  an 
income.  It  was  Adam  Smith  who  wrote:  "Rent 
is  not  at  all  proportioned  to  what  the  landlord 


58        THE  SOCIALIST   MOVEMENT 

may  have  laid  out  upon  the  improvement  of 
the  land,  or  to  what  he  can  afford  to  take,  but 
to  what  the  farmer  can  afford  to  give."  l 

Some  parts  of  the  land  have  special  values. 
Some  land  adjoins  rivers,  like  the  sites  of  Lon- 
don and  Liverpool.  The  transport  trades  must 
use  it  or  nothing  at  all.  Rutland  is  useless  for 
shipping  companies;  the  marshes  around  Leices- 
ter cannot  be  turned  into  docks.  Some  land 
contains  certain  minerals.  Middlesex  is  of  no 
value  to  a  mining  company  desiring  to  put 
coal  on  the  market.  Some  land  is  in  the  high- 
way used  by  streams  of  people.  A  Bucking- 
hamshire villas-  i>  no  use  to  a  Whiteley.  Some 
land  i>  of  oik-  texture,  other  of  another.  The 
clays  <>f  tlie  Thames  Valley  will  not  suit  the 
requirements  of  Lincolnshire  potato  growers. 
Thus  the  differences  in  the  quality  of  land  and 
in  its  natural  advantages  determine  where 
towns  are  to  be,  where  different  kinds  of  food 
are  to  be  grown,  where  there  are  to  be  factories, 
where  there  are  to  be  mines,  where  there  are 
to  he  green  fields,  where  there  is  to  be  a  Black 
Country.  This  in  turn  determines  that  rents 
are  to  vary.  Hut  however  much  they  vary, 
they  are  all  of  the  same  economic  nature.  They 
are  the  price  paid  to  the  landowner  by  the 
community — for  it  is  really  the  community  of 
consumers  that  pays  and  not  the  individual — 
to  induce  him  to  allow  his  land  to  be  used 
at  all. 

The  owner  of  land  is  thus  in  the  position 
of  a  man  who  holds  the  keys  of  life,  and  he 
consequently  can  exact  a  maximum  toll  as  his 

1  Wealth  of  Nations,  chap.  xi. 


FAILURE  OF  CAPITALISM  59 

price.  He  does  so.  Rent  therefore  tends  to 
absorb  every  social  improvement  that  can  be 
turned  into  an  advantage  in  the  exchange  mar- 
ket. A  marsh  outside  a  town  is  drained,  up 
go  rents J  a  tram-line  is  laid  into  the  outskirts 
of  a  town,  up  go  rents;  a  mining-shaft  is  sunk 
and  a  specially  profitable  seam  of  coal  is  struck, 
up  go  rents;  the  industrial  prosperity  of  a  town 
improves,  up  go  rents;  the  people  of  a  town 
acquire  the  habit  of  shopping  in  certain  streets, 
up  go  rents;  peasant  intensive  cultivation  is 
shown  to  be  profitable  in  certain  directions, 
up  go  rents;  free  education  is  granted,  up  go 
rents. 

The  amount  of  rent  is  determined  by  the 
capacity  of  the  community  to  buy,  not  by  the 
value  of  the  services  rendered  by  the  owners. 
It  is  a  measure  of  monopoly.  That  a  commu- 
nity which  has  improved  its  streets  and  edu- 
cated its  people  should  allow  the  possessors  of 
its  land  to  secure  for  themselves  the  financial 
counterparts  of  these  benefits  can  have  no 
justification  either  in  reason  or  in  morality, 
whilst  from  the  point  of  view  of  economy  it 
is  waste. 

Be  it  noted,  however,  that  Socialism  does 
not  oppose  rent,  it  only  objects  to  rent  belong- 
ing to  private  persons.  These  values  are  real. 
A  shop  in  a  frequented  thoroughfare  has  a 
higher  economic  value  than  a  shop  in  a  back 
street;  fine  river  loam  has  a  higher  agricultural 
value  than  sodden  and  heavy  river  clay;  as 
the  margin  of  cultivation  widens  the  value  of 
the  old  cultivated  lands  increases.  Some  one 
must  benefit  by  economic  rent.     If  it  goes  to 


60        THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

the  fortunate  shopkeeper,  as  the  advocates  of 
leasehold  enfranchisement  used  to  claim,  he  is 
receiving  something  which  neither  his  labour 
nor  his  skill  created;  if  it  goes  to  the  farmer  on 
the  long-cultivated  fields,  he  is  receiving  a 
benefit  which  he  has  not  earned.  Its  origin 
lies  in  the  nature  of  things;  even  when  it  arises 
in  consequence  of  the  expenditure  of  capital 
on,  say,  a  street  improvement  or  on  a  tram- 
line, it  is  much  more  than  interest  on  capital. 
When  Moses  struck  the  rock,  the  water  that 
gushed  forth  and  the  streams  which  fol- 
lowed his  people  through  the  wilderness  in 
consequence,  being  far  more  than  the  reward 
of  his  labour,  could  not  justly  be  subject  to  the 
economic  laws  of  private  property.  When  a 
London  Railway  Company  laid  its  lines  through 
Buckingham  and  opened  out  wide  fields  upon 
which  part  of  the  population  of  London  might 
spread  itself,  it  put  fortune  after  fortune  into 
the  pockets  of  landowners  and  speculators. 
That  was  not  done  by  the  expenditure  of  the 
Railway  Company's  capital,  because  the  com- 
pany might  have  tunnelled  Ben  Nevis  instead 
of  the  Finchley  Hills  and  no  new  values  would 
have  been  created.  It  was  caused  by  the  fact 
that  there  was  a  community  ready  to  use  the 
capital  in  the  form  of  a  railway  and  put  itself 
in  the  power  of  the  landowners  who  lay  in  wait 
for  the  exodus  beyond  Finchley  and  Harrow. 
The  only  just  repository  for  such  values  is  the 
communal  exchequer.  They  are  the  natural 
source  from  which  the  cost  of  government  and 
the  development  of  communal  action  ought  to 
be  met.     Every  valid  reason  that  can  be  urged 


FAILURE  OF  CAPITALISM 


61 


in  favour  of  personal  property  can  be  used  in 
favour  of  communal  property.  The  community 
has  created  the  values,  and  it  needs  them  in 
order  to  continue  a  free  existence.  But  to-day 
they  are.  handed  over  to  private  individuals 
who  are  parasitical  sharers  in  national  wealth. 


2.  Interest. 

Incomes  derived  from  invested  capital  are 
not  so  easy  to  classify.  The  Ricardian  dictum 
that  all  wealth  is  created  by  labour  is  not  ex- 
actly true.  It  carries  one  much  further  than 
the  statement  which  is  true — that  no  wealth 
can  be  created  without  the  service  of  labour.1 

1  A  good  deal  of  profitless  attack  upon  socialist  economic 
theory  has  taken  place  on  this  subject.  The  doctrine  that 
all  wealth  is  created  by  labour  was  laid  down  by  Ricardo, 
though  not  by  him  in  the  first  place.  It  was  one  of  those 
abstractions  which  the  liberal  economists  were  fond  of  mak- 
ing for  the  purpose  of  simplifying  their  arguments.  Marx 
took  it  from  Ricardo,  though  not  in  the  form  generally 
supposed.  Mr.  Mallock,  for  instance,  makes  much  of  this, 
whipping  it  with  the  scorpions  of  his  scorn.  How  the  whip- 
ping is  done  may  best  be  shown  by  parallel  statements. 


Marx's  theory  as  stated 
by  himself. 

"By  labour  power  or 
capacity  for  labour  is  to  be 
understood  the  aggregate  of 
those  mental  and  physical 
capabilities  existing  in  a 
human  being,  which  he  ex- 
ercises when  he  produces  a 
use  value  of  any  descrip- 
tion."    Capital,  I.,  p.  186. 


Mr.  Mallock's  rendering. 

Marx  asserts  that  the 
measure  of  exchange  be- 
tween one  class  of  com- 
modities and  another  .  .  . 
is  the  amount  of  manual 
labour,  estimated  in  terms 
of  time,  which  is  on  an 
average  necessary  to  the 
production  of  each  of  them. 
Critical  Examination  of  So- 
cialism, p.  12. 


It  is  true  that  Marx  believed  that  qualitative  labour  could 
be  reduced  for  bis  purposes  to  terms  of  quantitative  labour, 


62        THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

But  there  is  much  wealth  which  labour  cannot 
create  without  the  aid  of  capital.  A  man  can 
go  into  the  forest  and  tear  boughs  off  trees 
with  his  hands  for  his  fires,  but  he  cannot  fell 
trees  without  an  axe  of  some  kind,  which  is 
capital.  Capital,  therefore,  has  its  value,  a 
simple  fact  which  means  that  under  the  freest 
economic  conditions,  interest  will  be  paid.  It 
may  be  interest  of  five  per  cent.,  it  may  be 
of  a  tenth  per  cent.,  but  the  utility  of  capital 
in  production  will  always  have  an  appreciable 
value  which  the  labourer  who  uses  it  will  pay 
without  suffering  exploitation  or  injustice.  In- 
terest is  therefore  not  of  the  nature  of  a  monop- 
oly toll.  It  is  a  payment  for  service  rendered. 
This  we  may  call  pure  interest.  Risk  may 
determine  its  amount,  but  no  consideration  but 
this  can  justify  its  existence. 

But  everything  called  interest  is  not  of  this 
nature,  as  a  study  of  some  businesses  will  show. 
Money-lending  has  acquired  an  evil  reputation 
because  many  of  its  transactions  are  of  the 
nature  of  illicit  operations.  It  lives  under 
great  risks;  its  victims  are  in  unusual  straits, 
and  in  relation  to  them  it  is  almost  of  the  nature 
of  a  monopoly  because  their  chances  of  succour 
are  so  few;  it  deals  with  a  class  of  reckless 
borrowers  who  are  willing  to  sacrifice  the  whole 
of  the  morrow  for  a  moment  of  pleasure  to-day; 
it  is  often  dishonest.  When  we  allow  it  high 
interest  to  cover  its  risks,  its  income  is  still 
excessive  and  is  exploitation. 

If  we  consider  some  of  the  recently  formed 

but  that  is  a  totally  different  matter,  and  does  not  justify 
Mr.  Mallock's  misrepresentation. 


V 


FAILURE  OF  CAPITALISM  63 

trusts  we  again  discover  incomes  which  cannot 
be  justified  on  grounds  of  public  interest.  The 
capital  of  £34,000,000  which  the  Mercantile 
Marine  Company  carries  is  generally  held  to 
be  too  great.  If  interest  were  paid  on  it,  the 
community  would  have  to  bear  excessive  freight 
rates;  if  interest  is  not  paid  on  it  somebody's 
money  has  been  transferred  into  somebody  else's 
pocket.  The  lending  of  such  capital  is  not  an 
assistance  to  but  a  hampering  of  enterprise. 
It  is  as  much  a  waste  of  capital  as  was  the  old 
hoarding  of  money  in  a  stocking,  and  it  is  far 
more  detrimental  to  industry.  Another  source 
of  capitalist  incomes  has  been  the  forcing  and 
keeping  up  of  prices  above  economic  levels. 
Thus  the  price  of  sugar  in  America  has  been 
kept  up  by  the  trust  in  spite  of  great  improve- 
ments that  ought  to  have  reduced  prices.  The 
same  is  true  of  oil,  and  the  whole  world  is  groan- 
ing under  the  Meat  Trust.  The  policy  of 
Protection  greatly  enhances  these  incomes.  They 
are  all  of  the  nature  of  exploitation. 

Similarly  a  substantial  proportion  of  incomes 
made  on  Stock  Exchange  transactions  has  no 
justification.  The  Stock  Exchange  itself  is  a 
necessary  institution  and  will  continue  to  be 
so  for  a  very  long  time  to  come.  It  is  an 
organisation  for  the  exchange  of  capital,  a 
market  for  investments.  But  instead  of  being 
one  of  the  organs  of  the  industrial  system,  it 
is  manipulated  and  controlled  by  financiers  who 
influence  prices  and  exchanges  to  suit  their 
own  interests.  The  manipulation  of  capital 
exchange  has  become  a  business  which  is  para- 
sitic   upon    industry    although    the    institution 


64        THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

through  which  the  operations  are  carried  on 
is  necessary  for  industry.  The  rubber  boom 
which  took  place  in  1910  is  a  typical  example 
of  those  activities.  It  resulted  in  no  fewer 
than  three  injuries  to  trade.  An  important 
industry  was  unsettled  by  feverish  speculation; 
it  was  burdened  with  unnecessary  capital;  the 
price  of  its  products  was  forced  up.  Thus  the 
incomes  derived  from  these  transactions  more 
nearly  represented  a  measure  of  industrial  loss 
than  of  industrial  service  and  gain. 

These  are  but  examples,  and  they  by  no 
means  exhaust  the  catalogue  of  anti-social 
sources  of  interest  and  successful  business  trans- 
actions which  represent  waste  and  exploitation. 
Such  a  catalogue  would  specify  hundreds  of 
ways  of  making  an  income,  from  dealing  in 
slum  leases  to  trading  on  bankruptcy  stock, 
from  shipping  rings  to  sweating  wages. 

3.  Waste  of  Capital. 

In  addition  to  the  specific  instances  of  anti- 
social sources  of  income  which  I  have  given, 
I  must  comment  on  the  general  wasteful  effect 
of  the  system  as  a  whole.  One  of  the  chief 
characteristics  of  competitive  commercialism  is 
its  chaos.  It  has  no  system  at  all.  A  B  and 
C  engage  in  competition  with  each  other.  Noth- 
ing but  capacity  of  output  or  danger  of  bank- 
ruptcy limits  and  controls  their  activities.  They 
pour  upon  the  markets  their  goods;  they  manu- 
facture their  stocks  in  expectation  of  orders 
which  may  or  may  not  come.  They  take  work- 
people from  other  employers  and  callings,  and 


FAILURE  OF  CAPITALISM  65 

may  have  to  discharge  them  at  the  end  of  a 
week.  Production  is  theoretically  for  the  feed- 
ing and  clothing  of  the  people,  but  conducted 
as  it  is  to-day  by  rivals  who  seek  to  stuff  their 
victims  and  bury  them  under  clothes,  and  who 
only  stop"  their  mad  follies  when  the  markets 
are  choked,  and  when  a  paralysed  industry  tells 
them  in  words  that  cannot  be  mistaken  that 
they  must  stop,  it  results  in  industrial  dis- 
order, uncertainty  and  poverty. 

Hence,  it  is  true  not  only  of  over-capitalised 
trusts  that  production  is  bearing  too  heavy 
burdens,  it  is  true  of  industry  in  general.  There 
is  far  more  capital  in  use  than  is  necessary  for 
efficient  production,  and  for  that  competitive 
commercialism  is  to  blame.  An  oft-used  illus- 
tration of  this  is  a  comparison  between  the 
duplicating  and  overlapping  milk-carts  and  bar- 
rows that  are  dragged  up  and  down  our  streets 
of  a  morning,  and  the  organised  and  non-com- 
petitive system  of  selling  postage  stamps.  A 
well-organised  milk  trust  run  in  the  interests 
of  the  consumers  would  reduce  the  price  of 
milk,  diminish  the  amount  of  water  in  it,  and 
improve  its  quality,  not  because  it  would  elimi- 
nate the  dishonest  trader,  but  because  it  would 
effect  substantial  economies.  We  might  pen- 
sion off  every  superfluous  middleman  and  yet 
society  would  not  be  poorer  but  richer  as  the 
result.  It  is  because  this  is  true  that  trusts 
can  economise  even  with  a  top-heavy  burden 
of  capital. 

It  was  stated  when  the  American  Wire  Nail 
Association  was  formed  in  1895,  that  the  ma- 
chinery   then    working    in    the    country    could 


66        THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

produce  four  times  the  quantity  of  nails  for 
which  there  was  a  demand.  When  the  whisky 
combination  was  formed,  also  in  America,  it 
took  over  eighty  plants  and  found  it  could 
produce  up  to  the  demand  with  twelve.  The 
Sugar  Trust  was  formed  after  eighteen  of  the 
forty  refiners  in  the  United  States  had  become 
bankrupt.  Eighteen  of  the  survivors  formed 
the  Trust,  eleven  refineries  were  closed  down, 
and  the  necessary  production  was  carried  on 
by  seven.  When  combinations  in  our  own 
country  are  formed,  a  similar  process  is  gone 
through.  Old  work-places  are  closed,  produc- 
tion is  regulated  and  organised,  profits  are 
guaranteed  when  works  are  idle,  economies  in 
management  are  effected,  processes  of  manu- 
facture are  specialised,  and  differentiated  The 
waste  involved  in  competitive  industry  is  enor- 
mous, and  the  sheer  force  of  circumstances  is 
tending  to  eliminate  it. 

4.  Waste  of  Labour. 

One  further  consideration  must  be  noted. 
We  have  seen  that  the  private  ownership  of 
land  and  capital  is  a  serious  drain  upon  national 
wealth  and  a  heavy  burden  upon  national  pro- 
duction. Let  us  now  approach  the  subject 
from  the  standpoint  of  the  waste  of  labour 
involved. 

A  constant  grievance  against  the  amalgama- 
tion of  railway  interests  which  is  going  on  to-day 
is  its  effect  upon  employees.1    So  long  as  pro- 

1  The  Pennsylvania  Railroad  boasted  that  in  one  year 
it  had  dispensed  with  30,000  men  owing  to  economies  in 


FAILURE  OF  CAPITALISM  67 

duction  is  carried  on  primarily  for  the  profit 
of  the  owners  of  capital,  !  ibour  is  not  used 
to  its  economic  maximum.  There  is  no  co- 
operation between  capital  and  labour  for  the 
most  economic  use  of  both.  Labour  has  to 
look  after  itself.  Its  more  economic  use — say 
by  the  introduction  of  machinery — may  mean 
a  lowering  of  the  cost  of  production  and  conse- 
quently a  fall  in  prices.  But  wage-earners  can- 
not consider  that,  because  the  only  immediate 
experience  which  they  have  of  the  change  is 
that  there  is  less  demand  for  their  services, 
that  they  are  discharged,  and  that  their  incomes 
consequently  cease  altogether.  The  first  task 
of  a  workman's  life  is  to  make  a  wage  for  this 
present  week,  and  whatever  prevents  him  from 
doing  that  cannot  be  welcomed  by  him,  and  we 
ought  not  to  expect  him  to  welcome  it.  This 
is  why  so  many  trade  unions  have  at  some 
time  or  another  tried  to  limit  production  by 
adopting  the  policy  of  "ca'  canny."  x  There  is 
no  justification  in  sound  economics  for  this 
policy,  but  it  can  be  excused  as  an  incident 
in  the  attempts  of  capital  to  effect  economies 
at  the  expense  of  labour. 

A  much  more  prolific  source  of  waste  is  the 

working,  and  in  1907  the  New  York  Central  dismissed  ten 
per  cent,  of  its  main  line  staff  for  the  same  reason.  The 
various  proposals  that  have  been  made  for  the  amalgama- 
tion of  British  railway  interests  have  been  resisted  by  the 
men,  who  are  afraid  of  the  staff  reductions  which  follow, 
and  they  are  being  made  the  occasion  for  demands  for 
shortening  the  working  day. 

1  It  ought  to  be  remembered  that  this  policy  is  often 
advocated  by  capitalist  organisations  so  as  to  keep  up 
prices. 


68        THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

machinery  employed  by  capitalists  to  secure 
custom  for  their  giods.  This  is  the  cause  of 
enormous  expenditure  in  advertising  and  in 
putting  an  army  of  travellers  on  the  road. 
When  the  British  soap  combine  was  formed, 
the  Daily  Mail  objected  to  it  on  the  ground 
that  it  would  mean  a  loss  to  newspapers  in 
advertising  of  £200,000,  and  on  further  inquiries 
the  bead  of  an  advertising  firm  put  the  loss 
"at  nearer  £500,000  than  £200,000."  The  for- 
mation of  the  tobacco  trust  had  a  similar  result. 
The  hoardings  showed  that  to  the  eye,  and  the 
ordinary  newspaper  reader,  who  but  scanned 
advertisement  columns,  could  not  help  missing 
familiar  advertisements  of  tobacco  manufac- 
turers' warts.  Before  the  Standard  Oil  Com- 
pany secured  its  monopoly  in  the  supply  of 
paraffin  in  America,  advertisements  of  oil  stared 
one  in  the  face  everywhere,  now  they  have 
disappeared. 

What  has  been  aptly  called  "the  standing 
army  of  commerce,"  the  commercial  travellers, 
is  responsible  for  much  larger  expenditure.  Mr. 
Bradley,  who  gave  evidence  before  the  United 
States  Industrial  Commission,  referring  to  the 
cost  of  putting  whisky  on  the  market,  said 
that  forty  million  dollars  were  thus  spent  every 
year.  The  president  of  the  Commercial  Trav- 
ellers' National  League  stated  that  35,000  sales- 
men had  been  thrown  out  of  employment  by 
the  organisation  of  trusts,  and  that  25,000 
others  had  to  suffer  reductions  in  salaries.  He 
estimated  that  this  reduction  in  the  number  of 
commercial  travellers  meant  a  loss  to  railways 
of  £50  per  day  for  240  days  in  the  year,  or, 


FAILURE  OF  CAPITALISM  69 

in  all,  £5,000,000;  and  that  hotels  were  hit  to 
about  the  same  amount. 

This  dislocation  of  labour  has  a  justification 
in  economy,  but  the  fact  that  it  has  taken  place 
shows  what  numbers  of  printers,  bill-posters, 
papermakers,  travellers,  have  to  be  maintained 
at  the  cost  of  general  industry.  For,  it  must 
be  emphasised,  few  of  these  are  producers  in 
the  strict  sense  of  the  word.  The  vast  ma- 
jority  of  them  are  engaged  in  transferring  cus- 
tom from  one  firm  to  another.  They  are  tak- 
ing from  Peter  to  give  to  Paul,  without  adding 
a  halfpenny  to  the  wealth  of  the  community 
which  consists  of  Peter  and  Paul.  I  must  not 
be  understood  to  argue  that  all  advertisement 
or  commercial  travelling  is  waste.  One  of  the 
functions  of  advertisement  is  to  give  informa- 
tion to  consumers  and  users;  one  of  the  func- 
tions of  travelling  is  to  facilitate  the  exchange 
of  goods  between  producer  and  distributor. 
These  functions  are  necessary  and  are  of  the 
nature  of  real  service  which  creates  or  adds  to 
the  facilities  for  using  national  wealth.  Nor 
must  I  be  assumed  to  argue  that  travellers 
are  now  unnecessary.  They  are  part  of  the 
uneconomical  use  of  labour  occasioned  by  our 
present  system.  Under  a  better  system  they 
would  be  absorbed  in  other  occupations. 

The  fact  is,  that  our  present  modes  of  pro- 
duction and  distribution  are  complicated,  expen- 
sive, burdensome  and  wasteful,  to  an  extent 
which  few  have  grasped  because  so  much  of 
the  waste  is  hidden  under  the  appearance  of 
useful  labour.  One  seeing  a  printer  at  work 
assumes    without    a    second    thought    that    the 


70        THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

man  is  a  productive  labourer.  If,  however,  he 
is  printing  advertisements  the  only  effect  of 
which  is  to  transfer  custom  from  one  firm  to 
another,  he  is  not  a  productive  labourer  at  all. 
He  is  only  getting  a  share  of  the  wasteful  ex- 
penditure of  capitalist  competition.  No  sane 
employer  would  employ  two  men  to  do  one 
man's  job,  but  our  present  system  of  production 
ami  distribution  employs  an  army  of  men  who 
do  not  enter  at  all  into  the  mechanism  of  real 
wealth  production. 

Hence,  our  present  system  does  not  bear  the 
test  of  economy. 


5.  Poverty. 

We  can  now  apply  the  other  test:  Does  our 
presenl  system  fulfil  the  ends  of  industry, 
namely,  the  keeping  in  decent  comfort  the 
people  of  the  country?  Again  the  answer  must 
be  in  the  negative. 

Under  commercialism  national  wealth  un- 
doubtedly increases.  In  1812  Colquhoun  esti- 
mated the  wealth  of  the  Inked  Kingdom  at 
L\\  736,000,000;  in  1855  Edleston  estimated 
it  at  1:5.760,000,000;  in  1865  Giffen  estimated 
it  at  £6,118,000,000;  in  1875  at  £8,548,000,000; 
in  1885  at  110,037,000,000;  to-day  it  is  esti- 
mated at  £13,500,000,000.  Similarly  the  in- 
come of  the  United  Kingdom  was  estimated  in 
1840  to  be  £504,000,000;  in  1860,  £760,000,000; 
in  1889,  £1,285,000,000;  in  18bo,  £1,421,000,000; 
in  1904,  £1,700,000,000;  to-day,  £1,800,000,000. 
The  wage-earners'  share  in  1850  was  about  £15 


FAILURE  OF  CAPITALISM  71 

per  head  per  annum,  in  1888  it  had  risen  to 
£25,  in  1905  to  £29,  and  it  remains  about  that 
to-day.  Thus,  the  wage-earners'  share  has  not 
increased  in  proportion  to  the  increase  of  the 
national  Income.  I  have  already  quoted  Mr. 
Mallock's  figures  of  family  incomes,  and  these, 
read  with  the  above  figures  and  with  the  de- 
scriptions of  poverty  given  in  the  investigations 
of  Mr.  Booth,  Mr.  Rowntree,  the  Social  Union 
of  Dundee,  reveal  a  vast  amount  of  poverty, 
a  certain  amount  of  which  is  punishment  for 
personal  errors,  but  the  bulk  of  which  is  the 
product  of  our  industrial  system. 

Let  us  consider  the  most  fruitful  source  of 
all  poverty — unemployment.  The  unemployed 
man  is  not  merely  temporarily  injured  by  idle- 
ness. He  loses  grip  on  life,  his  savings  go,  his 
membership  of  thrift  clubs  lapses,  he  acquires 
bad  habits,  his  skill  deteriorates,  he  becomes  an 
"habitual."  Even  if  he  resists  the  worst  effects 
of  unemployment,  he  emerges  from  it  with  a 
heavy  millstone  of  debt  and  discouragement 
about  his  neck,  and  if  it  recurs  it  may  make  it 
impossible  for  him  ever  to  move  from  those 
shallows  where  he  is  stranded  at  every  ebb  of 
the  industrial  tide.  Now,  competitive  industry 
always  requires  a  margin  of  workless  men. 
The  tide  is  never  steady,  and  the  statistics 
show  that  at  the  very  best  of  times  from  two 
to  three  per  cent,  of  skilled  men  are  out  of  work. 
That  on  a  working  population  of  14,000,000 
means  that  280,000  workers  are  out  of  work 
during  booms  of  trade.  That  figure  rises  four- 
fold and  over  in  times  of  bad  trade,  and  when 
we   add   dependents,   we   can   gain   some   idea 


72        THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

of   the  disastrous   effect   of   this   single   flaw   in 
competitive  industry. 

Now,  it  is  not  merely  that  our  present  sys- 
tem requires  a  constant  margin  of  unemployed, 
it  also  requires  B  constant  alternation  of  booms 
and  depressions.  It  cannot  work  .steadily.  It 
must  always  go  by  fits  and  starts.  It  is  like 
a  steam-engine  without  a  regulator.  The  market 
is  good  and  the  demand  is  eager.  Off  goes 
every  productive  machine  in  the  country. 
Everybody  is  piling  his  goods  on  to  the  market 
with  a  reckless  disregard  for  the  morrow. 
There  is  no  attempt  to  gauge  capacity  oi  con- 
sumption;   there  is  do  effort  made  to  ascertain 

where   the   balance   between   supply   and   demand 

is  fixed.  The  result  is  a  choking  <>f  the  market. 
depression  in  trade,  unemployment,  financial 
loss  and  bankruptcy.  So  incompetent  is  present- 
day   society    to    handle    stocks   of   commodities 

and  distribute  them  that  when  nature  happens 
to  be  in  a  generous  mood  and  supplies  rich 
harvests,  distress  as  often  follows  as  prosperity. 
In  1905  American  newspapers  announced  that, 
owing  to  a  big  crop,  cotton  would  have  to  be 
burned  in  the  South  to  prevent  serious  loss  to 
the  growers.  And  so  long  as  each  producer 
works  for  himself  alone,  with  his  advertise- 
ments, his  travellers,  his  agents,  so  long  will 
there  he  chaos,  unemployment,  poverty. 

And  to  make  matters  worse  on  their  dramatic 
side  at  any  rate,  all  this  unemployment  takes 
place  when  wealth  is  most  heaped  up  and  wait- 
ing for  consumers.  When  the  shoemaker  is 
shoeless  on  the  street,  capital  is  cheapest,  leather 
is  cheapest,  and  boots  are  filling  the  warehouses. 


FAILURE  OF  CAPITALISM  73 

Conditions  are  all  the  worse  on  account  of 
a  circumstance  upon  which,  on  other  grounds, 
we  greatly  pride  ourselves.  We  are  taught 
that  we  are  free,  that  no  one  controls  our  goings- 
out  and  Our  comings-in;  and  when  Socialists 
speak  of  the  present  as  a  system  of  wage-slavery, 
we  get  angry.  This  freedom,  however,  has  a 
fly  in  its  amber.  The  man  who  is  the  property 
of  another  man  is  of  value  to  that  man  and 
is  not  allowed  by  him  to  die  of  want  or  to 
become  so  degraded  as  to  be  useless.  A  man 
owning  horses  has  far  more  cause  for  taking 
care  Of  them  than  he  has  for  taking  care  of  the 
men  whom  he  employs  to  work  the  horses. 
If  one  man  dies  or  becomes  useless,  there  are 
always  plenty  to  take  his  place.  The  perma- 
nent margin  of  unemployed  provides  what  is 
wanted. 

This  truth  is  well  illustrated  in  the  case  of 
Pittsburg.  The  machines  are  valuable  to  the 
Steel  Corporation;  the  "hands"  are  not.  The 
machines  are]  kept  in  the  best  order.  No 
money  is  spared  to  keep  them  up  to  date.  The 
means  of  production  are  of  the  best.  Turn  to 
the  people.  The  Russell  Sage  Fund  Investi- 
gation has  revealed  a  reckless  and  callous  dis- 
regard for  decency,  for  health,  for  comfort,  for 
education  in  Pittsburg,  which,  were  the  details 
not  supplied  with  scientific  precision,  one  could 
hardly  believe. 

The  same  thing  is  seen  if  we  consider  the 
effect  of  industrial  legislation.  When,  for  in- 
stance, the  Workmen's  Compensation  Law  was 
passed,  employers  who  had  hitherto  felt  little 
concern    about    the    dangerous    machines    with 


74        THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

which  their  people  had  to  work,  began  to  inter- 
est themselves  in  guarding  and  fencing.  Insur- 
ance companies  began  to  impose  conditions 
under  whieli  they  were  to  do  business.  They 
appointed  inspectors  of  their  own  to  see  that 
factories  did  not  contain  more  points  of  acci- 
dent danger  than  were  absolutely  necessary, 
with  the  result  thai  this  law,  in  addition  to  the 
compensation  it  provided  for  injured  workers, 
made  men  of  some  value  to  their  employers. 
Life  insurance  companies  are  beginning  to 
appoint  nurses  to  look  after  their  ailing  clients, 
and    the    mosl    satisfactory   consequence   of   sick- 

insuranoe    in    Germany    is    the   elaborate 
system   of   preventive   efforts   bo   which   it   has 

ii   ri^e.      A>  disease  and  death  become  costly 
health   and    life  beeorne  Valuable. 

It  also  seems  as  though  the  forces  which 
enabled  labour  to  secure  better  conditions  for 
itself  are  weakening.  The  industrial  combina- 
tions of  capital  are  rendering  combinations  of 
labour  less  effective,  and  even  though  legisla- 
tion i-  beginning  to  do  what  trade  unions  did 
some  years  ago  and  bo  impose  certain  standards 
of  hours,  conditions  and,  in  certain  trades, 
wages,  recent  defensive  agreements  between 
employers  have  gone  far  to  restore  the  economic 
advantages  which  capital  had  when  it  was 
bargaining  with  unorganised  labour.  In  the 
economic  state  of  nature,  there  is  no  freedom 
of  contact  between  capital  and  labour,  the 
position  of  the  two  being  so  unequal.  Labour 
combinations  went  a  good  way  to  establish 
some  equality  by  their  common  bargaining  and 
by    their   privileges   to    declare    war    and    carry 


FAILURE  OF  CAPITALISM  75 

it  on.  But  capital  can  always  restore  the  in- 
equality by  following  the  lead  of  trade  unions, 
and  it  is  now  doing  so.  The  only  reply  that 
labour  can  make  is  to  enter  politics.  When 
it  did  so*,  however,  it  immediately  met  with 
the  censure  of  the  Law  Courts,1  and  capital 
again  got  possession  of  its  privileged  position. 

But  no  responsibility  is  imposed  on  any  one 
for  causing  a  slump  in  trade.  The  alternation 
of  overtime  and  unemployment  is  supposed  to 
be  as  natural  as  that  of  night  and  day.  The 
workers  have  to  bear  the  burdens  of  the  system 
under  which  they  live,  and  as  they  are  not 
responsible  for  its  control,  nothing  is  done  by 
way  of  a  remedy.2  Thus  the  elironic  under- 
payment of  the  workers  adds  to  our  chaotic 
methods  of  production  in  intensifying  periods 
of  apparent  over-production  and  trade  depres- 
sion. 

Nor  is  it  much  better  with  the  class  above 
the  workers.  As  unemployment  comes  inevi- 
tably upon  the  wage-earners,  so  bankruptcy 
comes  inevitably  upon  the  capitalist.  During 
the    ten    years    preceding    1909,    there    were    in 

1  This  refers  to  what  is  known  as  the  Osborne  judgment, 
by  which  the  British  Courts  decided  that  it  was  outside 
the  scope  of  the  authorised  purposes  of  Trade  Unions  to 
levy  their  members  or  spend  their  general  funds  to  main- 
tain a  political  party. 

2  Even  here  a  beginning  of  new  things  has  to  be  noted. 
The  political  organisation  of  labour  brought  this  problem 
within  the  area  of  pressing  political  interests.  The  workers 
have  to  an  extent  become  responsible  for  themselves,  and 
consequently  the  Right  to  Work  Hill  has  been  discussed 
in  parliament,  and  partly  as  a  result  of  this  a  scheme  of 
insurance  against  sickness  and  unemployment  has  been 
promised  by  the  government. 


76        THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

England  and  Wales  78,000  bankruptcies  and 
deeds  of  arrangement,  with  a  total  estimated 
loss  to  creditors  of  £81,000,000.  In  1909  there 
were  7,561  bankruptcies  and  deeds  of  arrange- 
ment, and  the  total  loss  to  creditors  so  far  as 
the  Board  of  Trade  returns  show  them,  amount  I'd 
to  no  less  a  sum  than  £5,086,131. 

Although  some  enterprises  that  become  bank- 
rupt are  of  the  nature  of  experiments  that 
would  have  had  to  be  made  under  any  system, 
and  others  an*  purely  fraudulent,  the  bulk  of 
them  are  failures  pure  and  simple,  which  must 
be  put  to  the  discredit  of  competitive  commerce. 
Mr.  David  X.  Wells,  the  American  economist, 
published  the  result  of  an  investigation  made 
in  the  city  of  Worcester,  Massachusetts,1  re- 
garding failures  in  business.  "Of  every  hun- 
dred men  in  business  in  that  place  in  1845, 
ttty-five  were  out  of  business  in  five  years, 
fifty  in  ten  years,  and  sixty-seven  in  fifteen 
years;  and  most  of  these  disappearances  mean 
simply    failui  What    man    of    practical    in- 

stincts can  regard  such  a  state  of  things  with 
a  happy  mind? 

In  addition  to  actual  failures,  there  is  a 
struggle  for  life  going  on  daily  from  which 
many  competitors  never  get  clear.  They  make 
ends  meet  only  after  the  most  continued  strain. 
They  keep  their  heads  above  water  at  the  price 
of  a  physical  and  mental  wear  and  tear  which 
by  and  by  bring  disease  in  their  train.  The 
increase  in  insanity,  in  paralysis,  in  consump- 
tion, in  ailments  like  diabetes  and  Bright's 
disease,  which  are  supposed  to  have  some  con- 
1  Recent  Economic  Changes,  p.  351. 


FAILURE  OF  CAPITALISM  77 

nection  with  mental  worry,  is  one  of  the  prob- 
lems with  which  modern  medicine  is  struggling 
in  vain. 

Thus  our  present  system  fails  absolutely  to 
satisfy  the  most  primitive  need  of  food,  cloth- 
ing and  shelter,  for  a  large  section;  it  imposes 
absolute  failure  on  others  struggling  to  meet 
that  need,  and  it  places  such  great  difficulties 
in  the  way  of  others  that  they  cannot  enjoy 
life  after  these  needs  are  satisfied;  it  makes 
the  grip  of  the  vast  majority  of  men  on  a  stand- 
ard of  life  which  is  but  moderately  comfortable, 
precarious  in  the  extreme;  it  secures  incomes 
to  those  who  do  no  service  and  by  allowing 
the  growth  of  monopolies  it  tends  to  increase 
the  power  of  those  enjoying  economic  advan- 
tages and  so  it  encourages  exploitation. 

The  present  system  bears  neither  of  the  two 
tests  which  were  proposed  for  it  at  the  begin- 
ning of  this  chapter.  In  a  sentence,  taking 
my  last  chapter  with  this,  the  Socialist  charge 
against  capitalism  is  that  it  is  a  method  of 
exploitation,  and  in  its  development  produces 
conditions  which  forbid  and  render  impossible 
its  continued  existence. 


CHAPTER  IV 

Till  I    MHIi    r  Vl'ITALIBM 

1.  Religion. 

Thf.  n-volt  apitalism  and  the  domi- 

nance of  property  over  men  bis  moved  intel- 
lectual and  artistic  as  well  as  economic  senti- 
ments. Sir  Thou  as  More  wrote  not  as  a  victim, 
hut  as  a  sensitive  onlooker;  the  pioneeri  of 
modern  Socialism  were  as  a  rule  men  of  sub- 
stance, troubled  in  spirit  rather  than  in  pocket. 
Thai  there  .should  be  such  protests  is  no  cause 
for  wonder,  for  commercialism  lias  coarsened 
everything  it  has  touched.  It  ifl  frankly  ma- 
terialist     in      its     inspiration.      Its    gospd    ifl    the 

u  irldly  laws  of  acquiring,  and  it   consequently 

must  be  in  sharp  conflict  with  every  other 
gospel  embodying  the  spiritual  laws  of  being. 

A-  <me  would  therefore  expect.  Christian 
ethic  has  frequently  borne  a  troubled  testi- 
mony against  the  industrial  order  of  commer- 
cialism. The  economics  and  politics  of  the 
Prophets,  and  the  spirit  of  the  Gospels  are 
awkward  inspirations  in  the  existing  order,  and 
would  be  revolutionary  if  they  were  not  only 
preached  from  temples  but  put  into  practice 
in    market-places.     This    is    seen    whenever    a 

78 


INTELLECT   UNDER  CAPITALISM    79 

breath  of  fresh  wind  blows  over  our  faith  and 
it  is  felt  as  a  motive  i tower  in  daily  conduct; 
its   soda!    significance    then    comes   to    the    front, 

the  idea  of  human  equality  which  i-  inseparable 
from  it  becomes  active,  and  the  reminiscences 

of  th<-  communist  experiments  with  which  its 
history  began  awake  in  it  again  ;uid  turn  men 

to  look  in  Socialist  directions  for  the  fulfil- 
ment   of    its    spirit.      A    Christian    revival    as    a 

rule  strengthens  the  active  body  of  social  ethics. 
Thus  the  rise  of  Nonconformity,  though  ap- 
parently the  result  of  only  a  fervid  evangelical 
propaganda,  proceeded  apace  with  an  increas- 
ingly emphatic  assertion  of  human  equality  and 

social     ri^lit ,    and    in    consequence    the    fruit    of 

the  religious  agitation  was  political  and  social 
reform. 

The  (irst  society  of  Christian  Socialists  was 
the  product  of  that  reinvigoration  of  the  lite 
of  the  Church  and  renewal  of  interest  in  re- 
ligious affairs   which    began   with    tin'  Tractarian 

movement.    The  doctrines  of  Kingsley  and  his 

friends  do  not  sound  either  very  robust  or  very 
inspiring  from   this  distance.     They  can   never 

be  dissociated  from  a  pose  of  snobbishness  and 
from  an  antiquated  and  fanciful  view  of  the 
superiority  and  inferiority  of  classes.  A  recent 
writer  has  said  of  Otto  Effert  that  his  Socialism 
consists  in  an  appeal  to  the  gentlemen  of  all  the 
countries  to  unite.  That  may  be  said  of  the 
Christian  Socialists.  Still,  these  Socialists  of 
nearly  seventy  years  ago  illustrate  in  the  clear- 
est possible  way  the  inevitability  with  which 
an  enlivened  Christian  faith  turns  like  the 
needle  of  a  compass  in  Socialist  directions. 


80        THE   SOCIALIST   MOVEMENT 

On  its  critical  side,  however,  the  movement 
was  quite  firm.  IN  political  affinities  may  not 
appear  now-a-days  to  1)0  very  attractive,  but 
its  economic  and  social  repulsions  were  of  the 
right  kind.  It  abhorred  Hanchesterism  with 
its  philosophy  <>f  individualism  and  its  results 
of  poverty.  It  assailed  competition  as  being 
of  Satan,  and  urged  that  the  best  life  <>f  the 
community  was  hound  up  in  co-operation. 
It  had  a  firm  belief  in  the  organised  community 
acting  consciously  ami  guarding  and  promoting 
human  well-being.  Only  in  this  way  could 
nmral  results  be  secured  and  virtue  be  made 
the  gateway  to  reward.  So  it  held  that  Social- 
ism was  a  product  <»f  Christianity.  Co-operation 
on    tin-   largest    ami    most    complete   -'-air   was 

the  social  mechanism  through  which  alone 
Christianity  could  work.  Ludlow.  QUA  of  its 
founders  and  also  one  of  the  best  <>f  men,  had 
been    in    France   and    had    become   enamoured   of 

Proudhon.  He  returned  to  England  full  of  the 
ideas  of  "mutualism,"  and  consequently  Chris- 
tian  Socialism   will   always   be  associated    with 

co-operative    production    and    the    self-governing 

workshop. 

The  movement  died  after  a  short  life  extend- 
ing from  is  18  to  1862,  leaving  as  its  progeny 
a   hook   or   two  like    Kingsley's   Alton    Locke,  a 

beautiful  life  or  two  of  which  that  of  Maurice 
was  the  most  saintly,  and  the  self-governing 
workshop  which,  after  a  generation  of  heart- 
breaking failure,  is  at  last  meeting  with  some 
success.  It  also  left  the  trace  of  a  tradition  in 
the  Church  itself. 

Later  on,  when    the    social    movement    again 


INTELLECT  UNDER  CAPITALISM    81 

gathered  in  importance  and  in  socialistic  con- 
sciousness,  Christian  Socialism  revived  round 
this  tradition.  The  Guild  of  St.  Matthew  was 
founded   in    is;?,   some  of   the   leaden  of  the 

Free    ChureheS,    without     forming    any     separate 

organisation,  associated  themselves  openly  with 
Socialism,  and  many  of  the  younger  ministers 
of  all  denominations  ranged  themselves  behind 

the  same  banner.     An  association  of  Free  <  Ihurch 

Socialist  clergymen  was  founded  in  1905,  and 
t Ik-  Church  Socialisl  League  in  1904.  Now, 
the  Church  in  all  its  sections  is  permeated  with 
Socialism. 

The  competitive  system  cannot  be  reconciled 
with  Christianity.  It  is  a  struggle  for  the 
survival  of  those  whose  only   virtue  is  that    they 

are  the  most  adaptable;  religion  can  never 
abandon  the  desire  to  supplanl  such  a  struggle 

by  a  method  of  selection  which  will  secure 
the  survival  of  graces  and  virtues.  It  must 
frequently  result  in  glaring  instances  of  the 
triumph  of  the  unjust  and  «»f  the  otherwise 
unworthy;  religion  must  always  regard  such 
results  a<  indication-  that  the  conditions  which 
produce  them  are  alien  to  it.  It  is  frankly 
a  reign  of  wealth,  whereas,  though  religion  may 
approve  of  the  authority  of  a  gilded  aristoc- 
racy—divine right— or  of  a  sober  democracy 
— divine  equality — it  never  can  justify  to  itself 
a  sovereignty  of  money,  an  empire  of  plu- 
tocracy. Above  all,  religion  must  resent  the 
attempts  made  by  commercialism  to  measure 
virtues  by  their  economic  advantages  and  to 
appreciate — or  depreciate — saints  in  accordance 
with    whether    they   are   or   are    not   useful   in 


82        THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

counting-houses.  However  strenuously  the  eco- 
nomic needs  of  churches  and  chapels  may  strive 
to  proclaim  peac<>  between  these  two  essentially 
antagonistic  systems  of  ethics,  the  peace  thus 
patched  up  musl  always  be  unhappy  and  un- 
natural to  both  sides,  and  rebellion  must  fre- 
quently break  out.  As  early  Christianity  had 
to  challenge  and  change  the  life  of  Rome,  so 
later  Christianity  must  one  day  challenge  and 
change  the  life  of  modern  capitalist   society. 


2.  Literature. 

This  challenge  has  not  only  come  from  the 
religious  sentiments,  but  from  all  activities  of 
the  intellect.  The  religious  revival  which  pro- 
duced Christian  Socialism  was  itself  the  result 
of  a   literary  movement. 

The  long  reign  of  the  formal  and  the  classical 
when,  as  Taine  said,  men  of  letters  adopted 
a  style  by  which  they  held  "as  by  their  coats," 
was  closed  by  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
and  nun  wen  beginning  to  return  to  nature 
for  the  refreshment  of  their  souls  and  to  history 
for  the  invigoration  of  their  minds.  This  change 
in  outlook  and  inspiration  brought  the  poets 
into  companionship  with  man  as  well  as  with 
nature,  and  the  Cottar'*  Saturday  Night  came 
to  be  written  and  Shelley's  magnificent  songs 
of  democracy  and  liberty  to  be  sung.  Words- 
worth gave  the  simple  dalesmen  the  mien  of 
godlike  dignity,  and  Coleridge  bathed  the  whole 
of  life  in  a  glow  of  spiritual  equality.  The 
new     literary     movement     divided.     The     main 


INTELLECT   UNDER   CAPITALISM   83 

stream  appeared  to  flow  backwards  to  medie- 
valism and  the  ages  of  romance,  and  it  refreshed 
the  political  system  which  grew  up  to  contest 
supremacy  with  the  growths  of  the  Revolution; 
the  other, "the  waters  of  which  were  often  min- 
gled with  those  of  the  first,  hearing  Carlyle, 
Elusion,  Morris,  Swinburne,  flowed  onward  in 
a  somewhat  hesitating  and  twisting  current,  in 
the  direction  of  Social  Democracy.  But  neither 
Btream  freshened  commercialism.  The  industrial 
order  was  shunned  by  both.  The  cash  nexus, 
the  self-made  rich  man,  the  lack  of  good  taste 
which  the  plutocracy  showed,  tin-  biutalising 
of  the  lower  classes,  the  destruction  of  the 
beautiful  in  nature,  the  enclosure  of  spots  hal- 
lowed by  beauty,  the  religion  of  utility — in 
a  word,  Manchesterism — have  been  attacked, 
lampooned  and  insulted  (sometimes  be  it  said, 
misrepresented,  but  that  of  itself  is  significant) 
by  both  the  romantic  and  humanist  schools  of 
literature. 

There  are  men  who  live  when'  wealth  is  made. 
Thev  hear  the  hum  of  the  wheels  all  day:  all 
day  their  eyes  wander  over  stocks  and  ledger 
pages.  It  is  difficult  for  them  to  use  wealth. 
They  may  clothe  themselves  in  all  the  appear- 
ances of  richness,  but  the  coverings  fit  badly 
on  their  backs,  and  no  one  can  ever  be  deceived 
by  their  show.  Now,  when  a  new  and  rich 
wealth-producing  epoch  comes  and  gains  pour 
in  upon  people  in  a  great  rush,  this  kind  of 
rich  man  is  produced.  Political  economy  is 
written  to  explain  and  justify  him;  ethical 
systems  are  built  up  solely  from  his  virtues; 
his    success    is    canonised.     But    the    praise    is 


84        THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

only  temporary.  The  world  cannot  continue 
to  live  and  yet  make  obeisance  to  him.  The 
minds  who  see  past  him  and  through  him  revolt 
against  him.  Hence  every  literary  genius  dur- 
ing the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  poured 
hot  scorn  or  icy  cold  water  upon  the  succe 
of  his  times.  It  is  true  these  \\  r i t « •  r ^  were  gen- 
erally only  unhappy  critics  or  defiant  rebels; 
tiny  were  not  reconstructive;  they  only  harped 
upon  the  desires  of  their  imagination.  Ruskin's 
vagueness  has  left  us  a  number  of  illuminating 
aphorisms  like:  'There  i>  no  wealth  hut  life"; 
Caiiyle's  passion  has  fashioned  for  us  the  medi- 
l-modern  community  of  Past  ami  Present 
and  thrown  out  volcanic  eruptions  of  fault- 
finding; Dickens'  pillorying'-  led  t»»  the  removal 
of  some  of  tin-  blotches  in  the  face  of  society 
as  he  found  it.  but  when  he  had  described  and 
had  mingled  his  descriptions  with  the  Bobbing 
protests  of  charity,  he  could  do  no  more; 
Thackeray's  gentlemen  jrere  dead  or  dying  or 
had  never  been  horn;  Wagner  was  a  Childe 
Harold;  Victor  Hugo  amiahly  and  mournfully 
shook  his  head.  But  they  stirred  up  enthusiasm 
and  touched  Numbering  consciences  into  wake- 
fulness. They  prevented  "the  man  with  the 
muck  rake"   having  it   all   his  own  way. 

The  world  cannot  exist  without  peace,  leisure 
and  beauty,  and  the  whirring  of  wheels,  the 
speeding  of  production,  the  depressing  of  vitality, 
the  creation  of  ugly  and  shimmy  towns,  the 
transcendence  of  cash,  darkened  and  blighted 
the  realms  of  the  imagination,  as  the  smoking 
chimneys  darkened  and  blighted  the  land- 
scapes.    The    arts    fell    to    the    lowest   possible 


INTELLECT  UNDER  CAPITALISM   85 

level.  Domestic  art  in  particular  sank  far  down. 
The  house  itself  and  everything  which  it  con- 
tained became  a  mere  utilitarian  shelter  with- 
out a  touch  of  beauty  or  idea.  Things  which 
used  to  express  personality  and  give  delight, 
were  hustled  out  l>y  machines,  and  craftsman- 
ship decayed.  Whatever  exception  can  be  taken 
to  that  statement  is  due  to  the  fact  that  there 
were  always  coteries  in  revolt  which  though 
living  in   the  period  were  not  of  it. 

When  literature  is  used  as  an  index  of  the  mind 
of  the  people,  one  searches  in  vain  e\eept  on 
the  very  rarest  of  occasions  for  political  demands 
or  systematic  criticism  in  tin-  pages  of  novelists 
and  poets.  But  one  finds  in  these  pages  the 
spirit  which  is  behind  programmes.  The  great 
literary  genius  is  seldom  a  man  of  the  past,  a 
mere  classicist,  a  bookman.  He  gathers  up  in 
himself  the  spirit  of  his  time.  Of  events  and 
of  the  clashing  of  parties  going  on  around  him 
he  may  know  nothing,  but  of  the  impelling 
underlying  forces,  the  tides  of  fundamental  feel- 
ings that  arc  sweeping  his  time  along,  he  knows 
more  than  most  men.  Therefore,  if  the  list  of 
actual  Socialists  amongst  the  literary  and  artis- 
tic geniuses  who  have  lived  during  the  commer- 
cialist  epoch  is  small  though  by  no  means 
insignificant,  that  shows  little  one  way  or  an- 
other. The  artistic  protest  against  commer- 
cialism can  be  traced  in  a  well-defined  current 
of  critical  idealism  most  ample  in  its  propor- 
tions right  through  last  century.  What  is  but 
vague  and  critical  in  the  protest  has  in  due 
time  become  definite  and  constructive  under 
the  moulding  fingers  of  Socialism.     For  instance, 


86        THE   SOCIALIST   MOVEMENT 

the  influence  of  both  Carlyle  and  Ruskin  has 
been  a  powerful  tendency  in  the  direction  of 
Socialism  although  neither  of  them  could  be 
said  to  show  much  appreciation  of  the  most 
essentia]  foundations-  e.g.  democracy — of  the 
fabric  <>f  the  socialist  system.     The  evolution  of 

William  Morris  followed  the  path  of  that  of 
many    a     humble    man.      He    was    the    child    of 

Elusion   and   Carlyle.     But   he  did   not   use  his 

love  of  the  romantic  and  of  the  beautiful  only 
BS  ;i  cudgel  by  which  to  beat  the  back  of  his 
time,  or  ;i-  an  inspiration  for  the  coinage  of 
phrases  of  literary  ami  ethical  beauty.  It  led 
him  to  Socialism.  Be  saw  that  tin-  drudgery 
of   the   machine-minder  and   the   factory   hand 

must  crush  out  the  joy  in  life  which  is  the  mother 
of  art.  Or,  as  he  said  himself:  "Slavery  lies 
between  us  and  art."  Hut  Morris  was  the 
exception.    The  socialistic  spirit   transfuses  the 

work  of  the  artist  as  a  rule;  the  artist  dott  not 
appear  as  a  propagandist,  a  lecturer,  a  chairman 
of  meetings.  That  work  is  done  by  other  types 
of   mind. 

Remembering  this,  we  turn  to  the  writers  of 
the  last  century  and  find  that  our  Socialism 
freely  tinges  their  work.  The  wells  of  refresh- 
ment  of   which    they   drank   an-   those    which    we 

frequent.      Wordsworth's     magnificent     s(,nnet 

which   stands   up   like   the  doleful    D  e  of  an 

[sraelitish  prophet:  'The  world  is  too  much 
with  us,"  is  the  vision  which  the  Socialist  sees 
and  seeks  to  guard  against.  From  an  opposite 
direction  altogether  Dickens  approaches  to  fulfil 
the  same  mission.  lie  was  more  of  the  dema- 
gogue and  less  of  the  poet.     He  was  class  con- 


INTELLECT   UNDER  CAPITALISM   87 

scious  and  never  drew  the  portrait  of  an  aristo- 
crat without  a  flaw.  He  had  do  system  but 
chaustible  reservoirs  <»f  feeling,  and  that 
feeling  in  its  quality  was  the  same  as  inspired 
Burns  to  write  <»f  "von  birkie  ca'd  a  lord"  and 
"a  man's  a  man  for  a'  that."  These  may  be 
but  evidences  of  political  prejudice.  Well,  it 
is    the    political    prejudice    which    in    time,    and 

after  being  hammered  into  .shape  and  tempered 
oo  the  anvil  of  reason,  becomes  Socialism. 
Through   the  work  of  both   the  poet    and   the 

novelist      ran     the     broad     and     deep     tendency 

towards  democracy,  towards  social  equality  and 

economic  justice — that  is,  towards  Socialist 
change. 

In  short,  the  poets  and  writers  of  the  century 
that  is  past,  in  the  main  contemned  their  own 
age.  They  did  HOt  ennoble  it  for  they  were 
not  of  it.  They  laughed  at  what  it  cherished. 
They  were  Utopians  and  reformers  in  relation 
to  it.  Meredith  and  Hardy,  Tolstoy  and  Ibsen, 
Turgenev  and  Anatole  Prance;  Burne  Jones 
and  Watts,  the  Pre-Raphaelites  and  the  founders 
of  the  schools  of  arts  and  crafts — all  pointed 
a  way  out  of  the  weary  dulness,  the  brutalising 
strife  and  the  hardening  materialism  of  com- 
mercialism, or  were  in  revolt  against  a  state 
which  Matthew  Arnold  said,  "materialises  our 
upper  class,  vulgarises  our  middle  class,  bru- 
talises  our  lower  class."  Romanticism,  culture, 
humanism,  all  declined  to  accept  the  compan- 
ionship of  commercialism,  and  if  they  at  the 
same  time  declined  to  label  themselves  Social- 
ist, they  worshipped  with  Socialists,  drank  from 
the  same  sparkling  springs  of  energy,  and  scanned 


ss        I  IN     BOCIALIST   MOVEMENT 

the  horizon  with  expectant  hopes  for  the  hum 
dawn.  Moreover,  those  who  were  inspired  by 
them  brought  down  from  the  empyrean  into 
the  fogs  and  dust  of  the  day,  their  thoughts 
and  prophecies,  t ln-ir  criticiams  and  their  dreama; 
and    Socialism    was    the    result.     The    common 

mind    sn\s    the    ways    and    means    OVCT    the    tops 

of  which  genius  gases  heavenwards  and  con- 
sequently neither  sees  nor  troubles  about  them. 

e  of  the  beat  literary  and  artistic  wort 
the  last  century  hai  been  but  as  drum  I 
to  which  the  step  o!  Socialism  kept  time. 


3.  90. 

On  its  scientific  ride,  this  movement  hai  been 
equally  well  marked,  though  in  this  country, 
unfortunately  men    have    not    I 

distinguished  since  Faraday's  time  for  that 
democratic  humility  which  is  the  orown  of 
intellectuality.  Science  in  ( treat  Britain  lias 
run  after  social  honours  and  even  its  Liberalism 
yed.  We  have  not,  therefore,  in  this 
country  that  circle  of  the  intellectual  democracy 
which  has  enriched  liberal  thought  on  th<  < 
tinent.     Curie    and    Lombroc  -  cialists, 

and  we  can  claim  the  most  distinguished  of  all 
our  living  scientists,  Alfred   Mussel   Wallace.     A 
brilliant,  if  small*  body  of  scientific  men  k> 
him  company.     Imt   uiin  a  m-  'alogue  of 

names  is  meanii 

The   reason    why   Socialism    and    the   scientific 
mind  should  be  congenial  to  each  other  is 
far   to   seek.     The   scientist    loves   order   and    is 


INTELLECT   UNDER  CAPITALISM   89 

repelled  by  disorder.  He  same  intellectual 
promptings  which  lead  him  to  invent   a  water 

tap  which  will  nut  <lri|>.  will  make  him  take  an 
intere-t   in  proposals   t<>  <|<>  away   with  the  indlis- 

trial  wastage  <>f  unemployment.  For  his  schools, 
fur  his  laboratories,  fur  hi-  research  work,  he 
ha-  generally  to  turn  to  the  state.  II<-  knows 
by    hitter   experience,    particularly    if    his    field 

i-  that  ^i  any  of  the  human  ami  tocia]  iciences, 

that      privately     en. lowed      teaching      places     are 

nut  free;1  if  In-  deals  with  the  physiological 
group  of  sciences,  he  knows  the  havoc  which 
competitive  industry  makes  with  nerves  and 
bodily  health,  with  hygiene  ami  physique.     Hut, 

■bove   all.    the   man    who   live-,    in    an    intellectual 

atmosphere    and     with    an    intellectual    corupan- 

ionship  musl  be  repelled  by  the  qualities  which 
can  amass  property  to-day  and  which,  in  conse- 
quence,   give    tune    to    society.      An    intellectual 

aristocracy  must  be  in  revolt  against  a  commer- 
cial plutocracy. 

M  p,  as  I   -hall  point  <>ut   in  a  later  chap- 

S  "  iali-t  method  i»  the  scientific  method. 
It  i-  the  method  <»f  evolution  applied  to  society. 

It  a--ume-  that  society  i-  fulfilling  it-  pa-t  in 
evolving   the   mure  efficient    form-  of   the   future; 

from  certain  well-observed  tendencies  and  fea- 
ture- it  constructs  working  hypotheses,  and  it 
uses  these  hypotheses  a-  guides  fur  experiments 
which  by  condemning  or  justifying  them  open 

1  President   Hadley  >>f  Yd  ipoanble  for  the  .>.' 

nn-nt    that   "a    I "n i \  i-r-it y   i-   moR   1  ik-  ! ;.    to  obtain   ni<>n<'y  if 

it  rivet  the  property  ownen  reason  to  believe  that  v 

richts  will  not  be  interfered  with."  (Quoted  in  Spargo's 
Common  Ssbm  of  Socialism,  p.  65.) 


90        THE   SOCIALIST   MOVEMENT 

the  way  for  further  and  still  more  comprehen- 
sive hypotheses.  Thus  the  whole  of  society, 
its  organisation,  its  institutions,  its  activities, 
i-     brought     within     tin-    sway    of    natural     law, 

not  merely  on  it-  descriptive  and  historical  side 
bul  <>n  its  experimental  side,  ami  administra- 
tion ami  legislation  become  arts  pursued  in  thr 
same  way  as  tin-  chemist  works  in  his  labora- 
tory. Socialism  alone  is  worthy  uow-a-daya  of 
tin-  title  of  scientific  politics. 

Hut  society  as  the  subject  matter  for  scientific 
study     ami     treatment     has     hardly     more     than 

crossed  the  threshold  of  the  laboratory.  Sir 
Francis  Galton's  imperfect  application  of  theo- 
ries of  heredity  to  government  is  still  the  best 
contribution  made  by  science  to  the  subject. 
Public   health,   family   needs,   school   hygiene,   the 

whole  field  of  Eugenics  in  its  widest  ami  most 

proper  SCOpe,  is  afl  Sparsely  tenanted  by  scien- 
tific    investigators     as    central     Australia     is     by 

agriculturists.     Hut    an    emigration    of    interest 

has  commenced  and  the  evidence  is  BO  clear 
that  one  is  tempted  to  prophesy  that  the  sci- 
ence   which    is    to    add    laurels    to    the    twentieth 

century,  as  biology  gave  laurels  to  the  nine- 
teenth,   is    the   science   of   sociology,    including 

social  heredity,  social  health,  and  social  organi- 
sation; and  in  that  science  Socialist  theory 
and  programmes  must  find  a  central  place. 
Socialism  has  made  sociology  important. 

Thus  our  Socialism  has  its  roots  dug  deep 
in  literature,  art,  science,  religion — in  all  the 
creative  activities  of  the  intellect.  Sometimes 
these  express  themselves  only  as  a  revolt,  some- 
times as  yearnings  after  the  phantastical,  some- 


INTELLECT   UNDER  CAPITALISM   91 

times  they  wander  back  to  the  religious  brother- 
hoods that  once  were  but  which  went  out  with 
the  conditions  which  made  them  possible,  some- 
times they-  content  themselves  with  singing  of 
the  ideal.  But  when  the  passions  ar  '  longing 
they  awaken,  the  principles  and  n.  .  es  they 
proclaim,  the  rules  and  methods  they  demand, 
are  all  gathered  together  and  systematized  as 
a  guide  for  practical  politio  and  an  impulse 
for  immediate  activity,  it  is  Socialism  which 
they  create  and  encourage  as  their  economic 
environment— Soeialism,  the  revolt  against  in- 
dividualist commercialism,  the  hypothesis  from 
which  the  future  organisation  of  society  is  to 
be  built  up,  the  ideal  city  to  which  the  feet  of 
men  seeking  a  rational  life  and  a  moral  commu- 
nity must  always  wander. 


4.  Comfort. 

Nor  is  this  intellectual  appeal  confined  to 
what  are  called  the  intellectual  classes. 

Marx,  taking  an  all  too  narrow  stand  on  the 
economic  determinism  of  history,  was  compelled 
to  lay  down  the  law  of  increasing  misery  as  thc^ 
law  of  Socialism.  The  rich  were  to  get  richer  and 
the  poor  poorer.  Wealth  was  to  gather  in  the 
hands  of  a  very  few  and  misery  was  to  become 
general.  Then  the  change  was  to  come.  There 
is  far  more  in  the  Marxian  forecast  than  appears 
in  the  experience  of  the  last  two  or  three  genera- 
tions. It  was  unfortunate  in  its  moment  of 
publication.  The  eighteenth  and  early  nine- 
teenth century  writers  who  also  believed  in  it, 


92        THE   SOCIALIST   MOVEMENT 

were  justified  by  events  far  more  than  Marx. 
For  the  workers  were  then  going  down  into 
very  shadowy  paths.  But  in  Marx's  time  a 
vast  expansion  of  commerce  was  imminent. 
Never  1  i  I  commerce  leaped  forward  with  such 
bounds  ..  it  did  in  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  and  the  working  classes  shared  in  the 
genera]  increase  in  wealth.  Engels  described 
the  black  cloud  which  overhung  the  working 
classes  just  at  the  moment  when  some  rays  of 
light  were  penetrating  it.  Marx  said  that 
Socialism  would  come  because  misery  would 
increase;  aa  a  matter  of  fact  Socialism  spread 
whilst  misery  was  being  lightened.  Therefore 
a  reply  to  UM  Marxian  dogma  is  not  a  reply 
to  Socialism. 

There  are  two  possible  avenues  down  which 

Socialism  may  come.  It  may  come  from  the 
darkness  of  misery,  its  way  lit  by  tlaming  torches; 
or  it  may  come  from  the  advancing  dawn  of 
prosperity,  its  way  lit  by  the  steady  broadening 
of  the  day.  For  the  past  generation  or  so,  it 
has  come  by  the  latter  way.  We  are  better 
clothed  than  our  grandfathers,  we  are  better 
housed  than  thev,  we  have  a  wider  choice  for 
consumption  than  they  had.  What  then?  Sat- 
isfaction? Or  more  hungering  and  thirsting? 
Certainly  more  hungering  ami  thirsting.  It  is 
interesting  as  a  matter  of  personal  experience 
to  note  that  the  strength  of  Socialism  is  not 
found  in  the  shimmy  and  most  miserable  quar- 
ters in  towns,  but  in  those  quarters  upon  which 
the  sun  of  prosperity  manages  to  shine.  It  is 
the  skilled  artisan,  the  trade  unionist,  the  mem- 
ber of  the  friendly  society,  the  young  workman 


INTELLECT  UNDER  CAPITALISM    93 

who  reads  and  thinks,  who  are  the  recruits  to 
the  army  of  Socialism.  The  explanation  is  not 
difficult  to  discover.  In  dealing  with  horses 
we  are  dealing  with  stomachs  only;  in  dealing 
with  men,. we  are  dealing  with  stomachs  and 
heads.  The  needs  of  a  horse  present  a  purely 
quantitative  problem  in  the  supply  of  hay,  the 
needs  of  a  man  present  a  qualitative  one  in  the 
supply  of  intellectual  happiness.  Man  is  not 
satisfied  with  a  little.  Everything  he  acquires 
broadens  his  horizon  and  reveals  in  a  widen- 
ing sweep  the  hitherto  unattained. 

Socialism  is  therefore  not  a  fleeing  from  the 
wrath  which  is  to  come,  but  a  stretching  out 
towards  a  state  where  more  of  the  blessings 
now  enjoyed  are  to  be  the  lot  of  men.  Its 
driving  force  is  intellectual  as  wTell  as  economic. 
The  spread  of  education,  the  sharpening  of  a 
sense  of  self-respect,  the  awakening  of  imagi- 
nation, the  increase  of  comfort  amongst  the 
workers,  enhance  the  attractiveness  of  the  Social- 
ist appeal  and  prepare  the  soil  for  the  Socialist 
seed.  Give  us  more  religion  of  the  true  kind, 
more  literary  and  artistic  culture,  more  science, 
and  the  opportunities  of  Socialism  are  thereby 
increased. 


CHAPTER  V 

SUMMARY 

We  are  now  in  n  position  to  summarise  the 
criticism  which  Socialism  passes  on  the  existing 
order  of  thin 

Commercialism  U  a  phase  in  the  evolution 
of  industrial  organisation,  and  is  not  its  final 
form.  It  arose  when  nations  were  sufficiently 
established  to  make  national  and  international 
markcN    possible,     and     it     created    classes    and 

interests  which  separated   themselves  from  the 

rest    of  the  community   and    which   proceeded   to 

buttress  themselves  behind  economic  monopo- 
lies, soda!  privileges,  political  power.     The  new 

industrial  regime  supplanted  feudalism  when 
the  historical  work  of  feudalism  was  done  and 
it  had  (eased  to  he  useful,  and  proeeinied  to 
build  up  a  method  of  wealth  production  and 
distribution  regulated  by  nothing  hut  the  desire 
for  individual  success  and  private  gain.  The 
new  power  lost  sight  of  social  responsibilities 
and  social  coherence.  The  interests  of  the 
individualist  capitalist,  of  the  class  of  capital- 
ists, of  the  property  owners,  were  put  first,  and 
those  of  the  community  as  a  whole  were  subor- 
dinated. It  was  hoped,  but  for  no  well-con- 
sidered reason,  that  by  the  individual  capitalist 

94 


V 


SUMMARY  95 

pursuing  his  own  interest  national  well-being 
would  be  served.  The  error  soon  reaped  its 
harvest  of  misery,  when  women  and  children 
were  dragged  into  the  factories  late  in  the  eight- 
eenth and,  early  in  the  nineteenth  centuries, 
when  people  were  gathered  into  foul  industrial 
towns,  and  when  only  human  endurance  limited 
the  length  of  the  working  day.  So  separate 
had  become  the  interests  of  the  nation  from  those 
of  the  propertied  classes  that  the  latter  found 
profit  from  the  degradation  and  deterioration 
of  the  population.  It  mattered  not  to  the 
cotton  owner  of  Lancashire  a  hundred  years 
ago  what  became  of  the  children  who  were 
working  in  his  factories,  or  later  on,  what  be- 
came  of  the  women  who  took  their  places. 
When  one  "hand"  died  another  "hand"  was 
ready  to  step  into  his  place,  and  whether  his 
life  was  long  or  short,  sad  or  merry,  the  ma- 
chines which  he  tended  spun  out  their  enor- 
mous profits,  and  the  owner  saw  no  reason 
to  believe  that  the  da}*  of  his  prosperity  was 
short. 

The  system  certainly  solved  the  problem  of 
production.  Under  its  whips  and  in  search  of 
its  prizes,  mechanical  invention  proceeded  apace, 
labour  was  organised  and  its  efficiency  multi- 
plied ten,  twenty,  an  hundred  fold.  Statistics 
in  proof  of  this  live  with  the  wonder  that  is 
in  them.  That  twentv  men  in  Lancashire  to-dav 
can  make  as  much  cotton  a>  the  whole  of  the 
old  cotton-producing  Lancashire  put  together; 
that  1,000  shoe  operatives  in  Leicester  can 
supply  a  quarter  of  a  million  people  with  four 
pairs  of  boots  a  year;    that  lw20  men  in  a  mill 


9G        THE  SOCIALIST   MOVEMENT 

can  grind  enough  flour  to  keep  200,000  people's 
wants  fully  supplied,  seem  to  come  from  the 
pages  of  romance  rather  than  from  the  sober 
history  of  industry.  Commercialism  has  writ- 
ten those  pages,  and  tiny  are  its  permanent 
contribution  to  human  well-being. 

As  time  went  on,  however,  it  was  seen  that 
this  wonderful  system  of  production  was  quite 
unable  to  devise  any  mechanism  of  distribu- 
tion which  could  relate  rewards  to  deserts. 
Distribution  was  l<-ft  to  the  .stress  and  uncer- 
tainty of  competition  and  the  struggle  of  eco- 
nomic advantages.  The  law  of  the  survival 
of  tin;  fittot  was  allowed  t<>  have  absolute 
sway,  under  circumstances  which  deprived  it  of 

moral  value.  The  result  was  that  national 
wealth  was  heaped  up  at  one  end  o\er  a  com- 
paratively small  number  of  people  and  lay 
thinned  out  at  the  other  end  over  great  ma 
of  the  population.  At  one  end  people  had 
too  much  and  could  not  spend  it  profitably, 
at   tin-  other  end   they   had   too   little  and   never 

gained  that  mastery  of  things  which  is  prelimi- 
nary to  well-ordered  life.  Moreover,  even  many 
of  those  who  possessed  held  their  property  on 
such    precarious    tenure    that    possession    gave 

them  little  security  and  peace  of  mind.  Pros- 
perity was  intermittent  both  for  capital  and 
labour. 

Then  conscious  effort  to  rectify  the  chaos 
began  to  show  itself.  The  national  will  pro- 
tected the  national  interests  through  factory  and 
labour  legislation,  and  at  the  same  time  the 
chaos  within  the  system  was  being  modified 
by  the  life  of  the  system  itself.     Competition 


SUMMARY  97 

worked  itself  out  in  certain  directions,  and  co- 
operation in  the  form  of  trusts  came  to  take 
its  place,  as  nature  turns  to  hide  up  the  traces 
of  war  in  a  country  that  has  been  fought  over. 
This  new  organisation  is  more  economical  and 
may  steidy  to  some  extent  the  demand  for 
labour;  but  it  means  that  economic  power  is 
being  placed  in  the  hands  of  a  few.  That  is 
too  dangerous  in  the  eyes  of  the  Socialist.  Its 
operation  is  too  uncertain.  Prom  his  very 
nature  the  monopolist  is  an  exploiter.1  He 
grasps  the  sceptre  of  state,  as  well  as  the  sceptre 
of  industry.  He  sits  in  Parliament  as  well  as 
in  the  counting-house.  He  becomes  a  powerful 
citizen  as  well  as  a  masterful  captain  of  indus- 
try, lie  raises  in  a  most  acute  form  the  problem 
of  how  the  community  can  protect  itself  against 
interests  being  created  round  its  exploitation 
and  enslavement.  Competition  solves  its  own 
problems  and  leaves  those  of  monopoly  in  their 
place. 

Surveying  the  same  field  with  an  eve  on  the 
moral  fruits  which  it  has  borne,  the  Socialist 
once  more  discovers  weeds  in  plenty.  The 
familiar  methods  of  adulteration  and  of  all 
forms  of  sharp  dealing,  both  with  work-people 
and  with  customers,  pass  before  his  eyes  in 
disquieting  masses.  Honesty  on  this  field  is 
not  the  best  policy.  Materialist  motives  pre- 
dominate.    Birth    and    honour    bow    to    wealth. 

1  Here  and  elsewhere  in  this  book  the  word  "exploit" 
is  used  to  indicate  the  taking  for  oneself  something  to 
which  one  is  not  justly  entitled,  and  must  not  be  read  in 
the  colourless  sense  of  turning  latent  resources  to  good 
account. 


98        THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

Wealth  can  do  anything  in  "good"  society 
to-day — even  to  the  purchase  of  wives  as  in 
a  slave  market.  A  person  may  be  vulgar,  may 
be  uncultured,  may  be  coarse  and  altogether 
unpleasing  in  mind  and  manner  but,  if  he  has 
money,  the  doors  of  honour  are  thrown  open 
to  him,  the  places  of  honour  are  reserved  for 
his  occupation.  The  struggle  for  life  carried 
on  under  the  conditions  of  commercialism  means 
the  survival  of  sharp  wits  and  acquisitive  quali- 
ty-^.  The  pushful  energy  which  brings  ledger 
successes  survives  as  the  "fittest"  under  com- 
mercialism. Capitalism  has  created  a  rough 
and  ill-working  mechanism  of  industry  and  a 
low  standard  of  value  based  upon  nothing  but 
industrial  considerations  and  it  has  done  its 
best  to  hand  over  both  public  and  private  values 
to  be  measured  by  this  standard  and  to  be 
produced  by  this  mechanism. 

But  the  controlling  influences  which  have 
been  brought  to  bear  upon  it — both  those  of  a 
political  character  from  without  and  those  of 
an  industrial  character  from  within — are  the 
foreshadowinga  of  a  new  system  of  organisa- 
tion. Commercialism  lays  its  own  cuckoo  egg 
in  its  nest.  Every  epoch  produces  the  thought 
and  the  ideals  which  end  itself.  Like  a  dis- 
solving view  on  a  screen,  commercialism  fades 
away  and  the  image  of  Socialism  comes  out  in 
clearer  outline. 


* 


CHAPTER  VI 

SOCIALIST   METHOD 

Hitherto  I  have  been  detailing  the  Socialist 
criticism  of  the  existing  order,  and  I  must  now 
turn  my  attention  to  the  constructive  side  of 
the  movement.  As  a  preliminary  it  is  neces- 
sary to  understand  what  the  Socialist  method  is. 


1.  Utopian  ism. 

The  Socialist  movement,  as  conceived  by  the 
pre-Marxian  Socialist,  was  not  an  incident  in 
a  social  evolution  in  which  the  whole  of  society 
was  to  play  a  part;  reason  and  moral  affection 
were  to  bring  the  change  as  an  act  of  individual 
will.  Thus  Fourier,  Robert  Owen  and  others 
had  no  idea  of  effecting  a  great  Socialist  trans- 
formation by  organic  change  brought  about,  in 
the  first  instance  at  any  rate,  by  political  action, 
but  they  spent  their  energies  in  attempting  to 
found  ideal  communities  wherein  righteousness 
was  to  dwell,  and  from  which  enlightenment 
was  to  beam  all  over  the  world.  By  the  suc- 
cess of  these  communities,  kings  and  rulers  and 
the   misery-haunted   common   folk   were   to   be 

99 


100      Till:  SOCIALIST   MOVEMENT 

converted  to  the  New  Harmony,  and  the  na- 
tions were  to  give  up  their  old  ways  and  pursue 
the  better  path.  These  were  the  days  before 
the  historical  spirit  had  been  awakened  into 
life  by  the  idea  of  evolution.  Man  was  assumed 
to  l'<-  a   fixed  entity  <>f  de-ires  and   modes  <'f 

action,   and    not    an   organism   subject    to   hi-tori- 

cal  change.  Tin-  Utopian  method  was,  there- 
fore, not  organic  pi  hut  mechanical  reno- 
vation. The  <-arly  socialists  hardly  grasped  tin* 
fad  that  society  and  its  various  forms  of  organi- 
sation had  historical  ro<>t>;  that  -ocial  hahits 
and    relationships    could    n<'t    be    thrown    off    like 

an  old  garment  when  fashio]  .  hut  that 

they  constituted   a   systematic  whole,   balai 
in  its  relationship,  intricate  in  its  hHerdepend- 
ence,  and  linked  by  vital  bonds  to  the  past. 

\\  <•   call    this   phase   of   tin-   Socialist    movement 

the  utopian  phase,  meaning  by  that  tin-  pre- 
Bcientific  phase,  when  Socialism  added  to  a 
perfectly  sound  criticism  of  the  present  and  a 
pretty  dear  insight  into  the  future,  methods 
of    reconstruction     which     were    inadequate    and 

unsuitable  to  society,    go  if  y,,u  l'o  to-day  to 

plac.->  like  Heronsville,  near  tic  London  suburb 
of  Chorley  Wood,  yon  will  find  no  trace  of  the 
<M  onnellsville  settlement   which  was  the  origin 

of  the   village,   and   which    was   meant    to   he   the 

origin  of  a  new  world.  It  his  been  lost  sj_r|,t 
of.  and  the  people  who  live  there  now  have 
never  even  heard  its  name.  All  the  other 
similar  experiments  have  died  too,  not  because, 

as  their  hostile  critics  arc-  90  fond  of  assuring 
us.  human  nature  could  not  stand  them,  but 
because  their  sociological  method  was  wrong. 


SOCIALIST   METHOD  101 

There  is  another  difference  between  the  two 
phases  of  the  Socialist  movement,  which  is  an 
asped  of  tin'  one  I  have  been  explaining.  The 
old,  with  the  exception  of  Saint-Simonianiam, 
saw  social  regeneration  coming  through  the 
commune,  the  new  sees  it  coming  through  the 

state.      In   this   respect,  all   the  error  is  not    with 

the  old.  We  shall  have  no  Fourier  Phalan- 
steries, hut  no  Socialist  movement  can  now 
exist  without  a  programme  «»f  municipalisation. 
The  state  is  not  only  the  government  at  White- 
hall.    It   is  the  city,  the  town,  the  village,  the 

family  as  well.  That  part  of  Utopian  Socialism 
i->   being   refitted    into   the   modern    movement. 

The  weakness  <>f  the  Utopian  method  became 

Very  evident  to  a  generation  engaged  in  politi- 
cal conflict.  Both  France  and  Germany  had 
to  deal  with  unpopular  governments,  and  Eng- 
land had  to  go  through  the  long  Reform  agi- 
tation so  that  democracy  might  take  the  place 

of  Family  rule.  Only  America,  with  its  wide 
unsettled  plain-,  it-  slack  soda!  organisation  and 

untrammelled  freedom,  was  in  a  position  to 
olTer  even  a  temporary  success  to  utopianism. 

The    political    movement    in    Europe    impinj     I 

upon  the  Socialist  movement,  changed  it •>  char- 
acter, hardened  its  will,  and,  for  the  time  !>einL.f. 

narrowed   its   vision.     What   was  to  have  been 

a  movement  joined  by  all  flinnrn  of  society  led 
by  sweet  reason  and  austere  justice,  became  an 
agitation    of    the    suffering    proletariat '    class, 

1  This  clumsy  word  lias  no  euphonious  equivalent  in  Eng- 
lish. It  indicates  the  dan  without  land  or  reserve  of  capital 
of  any  kind — the  wage-earner  pure  and  simple. 


10*      THE  SOCIALIST   MOVEMENT 

conscious  of  its  wrongs  and  clamant  for  its 
rights,  determined  t<>  exercise  its  power.  The 
Utopian  method  of  example  and  of  a  spick- 
and-span  order  in  a  dolls  bouse  Phalanstery 
or  ,i  wen  Harmony  \^;i>  set  aside,  and  the  method 
of  capturing  the  political  power  of  the  state 
was  inaugurated.    Some  Socialists  have  mourned 

thai     I  Ik-     idealism     of     the     Utopian     stage     WSJ 

trampled   down   l»y   the   new    leadership.    They 

do  right  in  regretting  it.  bul  it  was  inevitable. 

ialism,"    as    Louis    Blanc    said,  n    be 

fructified    only    by    the    breath    of    politics" — 

"proletarian     politii  Marx     added.      This     i- 

known    as    the    scientific    phase    of    the    Socialist 

movement. 
Like   all    revulsions   against    old   conceptions, 

it    start-    at    a    point    too    far   away    from    the   old 

error  to  l.e  itself  an  expression  of  the  real  truth, 
for  in  all  such  circumstances  wisdom  consists 
in  the  combination  of  two  extreme  positions, 
which   when  held  separately  arc  two  mistal 

Hut    the   political    method,    in    s..   far  as    it    i.. 

nises  that  society  can  never  change  its  relation- 
ship- except  in  an  organic  and  all  round  way, 
i-  true  to  the  facts;  in  s( >  far  as  it  is  a  recog- 
nition that  the  social  will  which  direct-  change 
within  society  must  operate  through  the  politi- 
cal state,  it  i>  again  true  to  th<-  facts;  and  finally, 
in  so  far  as  it  recognises  that  no  social  altera- 
tion can  he  permanent  unless  it  is  begun  l>y 
a  change  in  the  general  public  outlook  on  politi- 
cal and  social  rights,  it  is  again  true  to  the 
facts.  Further,  in  bo  far  as  scientific  Socialism 
in  by  uniting  the  working  rltinorn  in  a  politi- 
cal   movement    and    in   centring  that  movement 


SOCIALIST   METHOD  103 

round  certain  abstractions  in  political  and 
economic  theory,  it  only  followed  the  method 
tli.it  every  other  movement  has  ever  followed 
or  can  eyer  follow.  Thus  Socialism  towards 
thf  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  became' a 
political  movement.  Its  growth  since  then  has 
been  the  growth  of  a  political  movement,  and 
what  prospects  it  haa  at  the  present  momenl 
of  BUCCeedmg  are  due  to  the  fact  that  it  is  a 
political  movement. 


2.  Revolution. 

Thus  it  will  he  seen  that  the  talk  of  revolu- 
tion as  a  Socialist  method  is  wrong.  Revolu- 
tion can  never  bring  Socialism,  because  the 
change  which  Socialists  contemplate  is  one 
which  will  affed  every  fibre  of  society,  and 
which  must  therefore  be  an  organic  process. 
Changes  in  the  superficial  things  of  govern- 
ment, for  instance  whether  there  is  to  be  a 
republic  or  a  monarchy,  or  whether  the  people 
are  to  be  allowed  political  power  or  to  be  kept 

in  political  slavery,  may  be  effected  by  an  appeal 

to  the  sword,  but  a  change  which  is  to  readjust 
the  processes  of  wealth  production  and  of  na- 
tional and  international  exchange,  which  is  to 
establish  some  system  of  justice  in  settling  the 
relations  between  services  and  reward,  and  which 
is  to  end  the  economic  organisation  which  pro- 
duces too  much  wealth  on  the  one  side  and  too 
much  poverty  on  the  other,  is-  not  the  kind  of 
change  to  which  revolutions  can  contribute 
anything.     It  is  to  be  regretted  that,  in  order 


104      THE  SOCIALIST   MOVEMENT 

to  keep  up  an  honoured  hut  antiquated  phr. 
ology,  some  Socialists  still  use  the  word  revo- 
lution to  indicate  what  they  have  in  mind. 
It  must  be  observed,  therefore,  that  they  use 
the  word  in  a  very  special  way.  They  simply 
mean  to  indicate  by  it,  that  when  Socialism 
has  come  the  change  will  he  so  great  as  to  be 
fundamental,  and  that  the  state  of  society 
which  th"ii  will  have  heen  evolved  will  he  so 
different    from    that    from   which   the  evolution 

sprung,  that  it  will  not  he  the  same  kind  of 
society    at    all.      That    being    BO,    those    Socialists 

consider  that  they  arc  justified  in  speaking  of 
olutionary  Socialism."  They  only  add  to 
the  difficulties  of  those  who  arc  trying  to  under- 
stand them.  Revolution  does  not  mean  a  hig 
change,  hut  a  sudden  and  violent  change.  Even 
the  expression  "the  Industrial  Revolution" 
always  conveys  the  idea  that  the  change  i 
effected  rapidly,  and  that  it  disorganised  for 
the  time  being  the  existing  order.  It  must 
therefore  be  understood  that  when  Socialists 
use  the  term  '"Social  Revolution,"  in  connection 

with  Socialism,  they  wish  to  indicate  the  com- 
pleteness  of  the  change  which  they  contem- 
plate, not  the  methods  by  which  they  propose 
to  bring  about  the  change.  Revolution  is  the 
end,  not  the  means  to  the  end.1 

'This  is  illustrated  by  an  incident  in  the  life  of  Marx. 
In  1850,  he  resigned  from  the  executive  of  the  Communist 
League  on  the  ground  that  his  fellow-members  were 
substituting  "revolutionary  phrasea  for  revolutionary 
evolution." 


SOCIALIST  METHOD  105 


3.   The  Experimental  Method. 

Every  state  has  the  capacity  through  legisla- 
tion and  administration  to  fix  in  society  certain 
social  relationships  and  habits  which  have  been 
proved  by  experiment  to  be  good  for  the  com- 
munity and  which  are  approved  by  the  greater 
part  of  the  public.  This  fact  determines  the 
modern  Socialist  method.  When  the  state  is 
democratically  governed  and  laws  are  made  and 
applied  under  the  guidance  of  common  experi- 
ence, the  part  played  by  legislation  and  admin- 
istration becomes  more  and  more  important. 
When  a  class  is  in  power  which,  owing  to  its 
economic  resources,  can  protect  itself,  the  legis- 
lature will  not  do  much  work.  It  may  be  an 
enticing  debating  place,  but  its  volume  of  legis- 
lation will  be  small.  Indeed,  the  state  of  the 
dominant  political  mind  at  such  a  time  is  such 
that  the  generally  accepted  theory  of  govern- 
ment is  that  the  state  should  be  as  passive  as 
able,  doing  little  beyond  military  and  police 
service,  and  that  its  relation  to  the  citizens  is 
best  expressed  in  the  antithesis:  the  man  versus 
the  state. 

But  when  enfranchisement  reaches  the  stratum 
where  the  common  man  is  found;  the  legisla- 
ture meets  with  a  new  influence  altogether. 
The  elector,  the  creator  of  parliamentary  ma- 
jorities, is  now  a  man  who  is  not  in  an  eco- 
nomic position  to  protect  himself.  Indeed,  he 
is  the  victim  of  his  economic  weakness,  and  he 
has  to  depend  on  his  political  power  to  adjust 
the  balance  in  his  favour.     The  state  becomes 


106      THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

his  ally  not  his  rival.  An  opposition  between 
the  man  and  the  state  is  not  present  to  the 
minds  of  the  majority.  Libert}'  to  the  possess- 
ing classes  is  a  right  to  use  property,  to  the 
labouring  classes  it  is  a  right  to  be  protected 
against  the  abuse  <>f  property;  as  an  absolute 
ideal  to  the  possessing  classes,  it  is  the  drawing 
up  of  every  stake  thai  limits  action  except  the 
action  of  property-holders,  as  an  absolute  ideal 
to  the  labouring  classes,  it  is  the  limitation  of 
the  exercise  <»f  certain  powers  of  action  for  the 
purpose  of  securing  the  greatest  protection  and 
freedom   for   the  greatest    number. 

This  is  the  fundamental  change  in  the  politi- 
cal intelligence  which  comes  with  the  enfran- 
chisement of  the  common  folk,  and  which  makes 
democracy  something  more  than  "a  form  of 
government."  The  relation  between  the  state 
and  the  individual  is  revolutionised.  For  when 
men  think  of  the  state  as  an  authority  which 
says  "Let  us  do  this  together,"  instead  of 
one  which  Bays— "You  must  not  do  this"  the 
whole  standpoint  from  which  they  survey  the 
future  is  changed.  Progress  becomes  a  matter 
of  mutual  aid,  instead  of  the  result  of  the  struggle 
lor  life.  Education,  culture,  morality,  idealism — 
and  not  economic  power — become  the  creative 
forces  in  society,  and  the  social  mind  is  bent 
upon  producing  a  congenial  social  environment 
through  which  these  can  work. 

In  other  words,  the  spirit  of  constructive 
Socialism  arises  from  political  democracy.  With 
the  approach  of  the  sun  to  the  earth  in  spring, 
the  breeze  warms  and  the  wayside  bursts  out 
into  colour.     Life  is  the  companion  of  the  hours 


* 


SOCIALIST  METHOD  107 

of  spring.  So  is  Socialism  the  companion  of 
democracy.  The  people  become  accustomed  to 
Socialist  axioms.  Even  when  they  imagine  they 
are  shunning  Socialism  they  are  following  it. 
It  is  said  'of  a  certain  Indian  state  that  it  has 
a  make-believe  parliament.  Men  meet  together 
and  discuss  and  pass  resolutions  and  the  Rajah 
proceeds  forthwith  to  tear  them  up  and  throw 
them  to  the  winds.  And  when  one  was  asked 
why  he  continued  to  sit  in  such  a  parliament, 
he  smiled  and  said  that  their  resolutions  were 
first  of  all  torn  up  but  in  a  short  time  they  were 
acted  upon  by  the  Rajah,  because  even  he  was 
but  a  spill  floating  on  the  currents  of  public 
opinion.  Thus  the  Socialist  spirit  and  point 
of  view  may  be  the  subject  of  violent  hostile 
propaganda,  but  all  parties  in  the  state  have 
to  accept  its  guidance  and  form  their  legisla- 
tion accordingly.  Whether,  in  a  coming  tin.'-, 
the  drift  of  the  current  is  to  change  its  direction 
or  not,  is  a  matter  of  speculation,  which  only 
idle  men  will  spend  much  time  in  discussing. 
To-day,  it  is  running  clear  and  strong,  not 
because  men  believe  in  Socialism  but  because 
Socialism  is  a  consequence  of  democracy. 

4.  The  Parliamentary  Method. 

The  political  policy  of  Socialism  presents 
many  difficult  problems  which  are  not  the 
same  in  any  two  countries,  and  which  are  more 
complicated  in  Great  Britain  than  in  any  other 
land  of  the  globe. 

A  comparison  between  German  political  con- 


108      THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

ditions  and  our  own  will  enable  me  to  make 
this  clear.  The  German  Reichstag  is  not  a 
parliament.  When  Bismarck  drafted  the  con- 
stitution, which  with  but  few  amendments  was 
accepted  for  the  German  Empire,  he  had  two 
leading  purposes  in  his  mind.  He  determined 
to  create  a  legislature  based  on  the  most  demo- 
cratic Franchise,  but  devoid  of  every  particle  of 
real  power,  and  at  the  same  time  to  repose  the 
real  legislative  and  executive  authority  of  the 
confederation  in  a  Bundesrath  which  was  to 
be  so  constituted  as  to  be  a  fortress  of  the  □ 
extreme  kind  of  conservatism.  The  Reichstag 
is  therefore  little  more  than  a  del  ating  society, 
wherein,   however,   serious   affairs   of   state  are 

discussed   and    public   opinion   expressed    in   such 

a  way  that  the  responsible  authorities  cannot 
afford  to  overlook  it.  It  has  been  d<  scribed  as 
the  weakest  lower  house  of  parliament  in  the 
world,  whilst  the  Bundesrath  has  been  described 
a^  the  strongest  upper  house.  If  there  were 
to  be  a  redistribution  of  seats  and  the  towns 
were  adequately  represented,  the  flood  of  Radi- 
cal and  Socialist  representation  that  would  fol- 
low would  swamp  the  Bismarck  constitution. 
But  I  am  not  dealing  with  the  future,  I  am 
dealing  with  what  is.  The  parties  constituting 
an  assembly  of  debate  which  is  not  an  assem- 
bly of  authority  must  be  subject  to  a  very  dif- 
ferent set  of  influences  from  that  which  plays 
upon  our  British  political  parties.  A  Chamber 
responsible  to  public  opinion  for  its  acts  and 
free  constitutionally  to  make  its  will  effective, 
must  keep  in  touch  with  every  phase  of  the 
public  mind   and   must   make  itself  responsible 


SOCIALIST  METHOD  109 

for  every  step  in  national  evolution.  The  par- 
ties in  such  a  Chamber  have  to  pay  far  more 
attention  to  method  and  immediate  programmes 
than  to  abstract  principles,  though  they  must 
find  principles  necessary  as  the  mould  in  which 
to  fashion  programmes,  and  as  the  lamps  by 
which  to  guide  their  steps.  They  will  be  far 
less  able  to  take  purely  negative  attitudes,  and 
they  will  have  far  fewer  opportunities  to  vote 
on  separate  measures  without  reference  to  the 
complete  work  of  sessions  and  to  the  govern- 
ments that  are  in  power.  The  consequences  of 
their  action  upon  the  general  political  situation, 
the  relation  which  every  question  bears  to  the 
larger  programmes  and  to  the  advantage  or 
disadvantage  of  other  parties  must  be  ever  in 
their  minds.  In  other  words,  whilst  the  eyes 
of  the  parties  in  an  irresponsible  legislature 
like  the  Reichstag  are  fixed  upon  the  horizon, 
those  of  the  parties  in  a  responsible  legislature 
like  our  own  House  of  Commons  are  fixed  at 
their  feet.  To-day  and  to-morrow  are  of  rela- 
tively small  consequence  under  the  former  con- 
ditions; they  are  of  the  greatest  importance 
under  the  latter  conditions.  Under  the  former 
conditions  hard  and  fast  lines  can  be  drawn 
between  parties;  under  the  latter  there  are 
transition  groups  which  blur  the  great  divisions. 
Hence,  when  Socialism  as  a  movement  arises 
in  a  state  which  is  governed  autocratically  like 
Germany,  it  does  not  influence  legislation  from 
day  to  day.  It  frightens  rulers  and  in  that 
way  gets  certain  things  done,  as  Bismarck  was 
compelled  to  pass  Socialistic  legislation  in  his 
attempt  to  cut  off  at  its  source  the  discontent 


110      THE  SOCIALIST   MOVEMENT 

from  which  the  Socialist  movement  was  re- 
cruited. But  that  is  a  different  thing  from 
influencing  the  creative  opinion  of  a  nation 
and  making  that  opinion  more  and  mere  sym- 
pathetic and  more  and  more  friendly  in  all  its 
actions.  Under  a  democracy  every  Socialist 
advance  tinges  with  red  the  opinions  of  the 
other  parties.  They  compete  with  it  for  votes, 
and    consequently    if    it    succeeds    in    changing 

opinion     it     also    changes    parties.     A    dogmatic 

Liberal  <>r  Conservative  party  finding  a  habi- 
tation in  the  ancient  creeds  of  individualism 
or  of  aristocratic  privilege,  is  just  as  impossible 

under  British  conditions  a-  is  a  similar  Social- 
ist party  dwelling  in  a  fairyland  of  economic 
justice.  The  practical  results  of  the  Socialist 
agitation  in  Germany  and  Great  Britain  may 
l>e  the  same,  but  the  methods  are  quite  dif- 
ferent.1 

These  differences  do  not  depend  upon  some 
fixed  differences  in  national  characteristics,  but 
upon    political    systems,    and    consequently    the 

granting  of  real  democratic  liberty  to  the  Ger- 
man parliament  would  bring  the  German  So- 
eialists  face  to  face  with  exactly  the  same 
problems  in  political  policy  as  the  British 
Socialists  have  now  to  meet.  The  method  of 
Socialism   under  democracy   can   never  be  cata- 

1  Although  the  difference  I  am  pointing  out  is  real,  it 
must  not  be  exaggerated.  Fur  instance,  the  German  Social 
Democrats,  as  well  as  ourselves,  discriminate  between  par- 
ties, and  at  the  x-cond  ballots,  when  they  have  no  candi- 
date of  their  own  surviving,  they  do  not,  as  a  rule,  abstain 
from  voting,  but  support  the  party  which  comes  nearest 
to  themselves.  In  the  Prussian  State  Elections  they  have 
even  made  official  overtures  to  the  Liberals. 


SOCIALIST  METHOD  111 

clysinic,  because  changed  opinions  and  outlooks 
will  have  a  steady  and  uninterrupted  influence 
on  administration  and  legislation.  What  can- 
not be  done  at  a  ballot  box  in  a  democracy 
cannot  be^  done  at  a  barricade.  Like  cordite 
burning  in  the  open,  old  conditions  will  be 
harmlessly  transformed;  they  will  not,  like 
cordite  burning  in  a  confined  place,  become 
explosive.  Social  organisation  will  be  changed 
here  and  there  just  as  the  makers  of  a  fabric 
of  elaborate  pattern  complete  its  design  by 
adding  this  and  that  patch  of  colour  in  obedi- 
ence to  the  complete  artistic  idea  they  are 
working  out.  Or  perhap  -  an  even  better  anal- 
ogy for  the  change  is  that  which  takes  place 
in  an  organism  which  is  moving  from  one  set 
of  vital  conditions  to  another.  Its  muscles, 
its  digestive  organs,  its  temperament  alter  in 
obedience  to  the  subtile  change  of  environment 
which  is  going  on  around  it. 

Every  objection  to  Socialism  based  on  the 
contention  that  no  one  can  foresee  all  the  de- 
tails of  the  change  which  it  involves  and  that, 
in  consequence,  there  will  be  chaos  the  morrow 
after  the  first  Socialist  sun  sets;  that  no  one 
has  produced  a  scheme  for  securing  a  supply 
of  bottlewashers,  navvies,  newspaper  editors, 
poets,  and  that  therefore  Socialism  will  break 
down  for  lack  of  variety  in  social  functionaries 
— all  these  objections  fail  because  they  do  not 
touch  reality.  The  Socialist  method  avoids 
such  disasters.  The  approach  to  Socialism  is 
by  the  Parliamentary  method.  Step  by  step 
we  shall  go  experiencing  every  incident  on  the 
way    and    deciding    stage    by    stage    where    the 


112       THE  SOCLVLIST  MOVEMENT 

next  day's  journey  leads,  and  whether  the  in- 
ducements and  expectations  point  our  way. 
The  problems  will  be  solved  as  they  arise. 

The  characteristics  of  the  method  can  best 
be  understood  by  an  examination  of  one  of 
the  conundrums  put  to  us  regarding  the  work- 
ing of  some  of  the  details  of  the  perfect  Social- 
ist state.  The  criticism  proceeds  in  this  way: 
Your  Socialism  assumes  this  and  that  (very 
often,  be  it  noted,  it  does  nothing  of  the  kind), 
but  men  will  inner  tolerate  such  a  this  and 
that,  therefore  your  Socialism  is  impossible. 
Lei  n>  take  as  an  example  the  question  as  to 
whether  under  Socialism  there  will  be  equal 
pay  for  all  work.  As  a  question  of  practical 
importance,  nothing  is  more  certain  than  that 
a  Socialist  state  can  yield  a  vast  amount  of 
benefit  to  its  citizens  whilst  unequal  incomes 
.ire  paid  to  .sen  ice  givers.  Hut  there  are  some 
Socialist  critics  who  insist  noon  imparting  to 
Socialism  a  moral  symmetry  which,  undoubtedlv, 
could  it  he  maintained  in  working,  would  have 
valuable  social  results  of  an  idealistic  kind. 
How  does  the  Socialist  approach  the  question? 
He  may  admit  that  generally  speaking  the 
effort  of,  say.  a  first-class  surgeon  is  not  any 
more  than  that  of  an  eflicient  navvy,  though 
the  skill  of  the  former  is  far  rarer  than  that 
of  the  latter,  and  is  therefore  rewarded  to  some 
extent  as  a  landowner  who  can  exact  rent  is 
rewarded.1  He  may  further  admit  that  it  is 
quite    conceivable    that    the    attractions    of    the 

1  The  wages  of  ability  are  partly  of  the  nature  of  rent, 
because  they  are  the  share  claimed  by  a  holder  of  a  mon- 
opoly. 


SOCIALIST  METHOD  113 

former  calling  are  so  great  to  certain  types  of 
mind,  that  they  will  be  content  to  consider 
the  mere  opportunities  to  exercise  their  skill 
as  themselves  a  precious  reward,  just  as  a 
healthy  athlete  requires  no  fee  or  prize-money 
to  induce  Turn  to  go  a  long  walk.  But  if  he  is 
wise,  he  will  content  himself,  so  far  as  dogma- 
tising about  Socialism  is  concerned,  with  the 
contention  that  this  question  cannot  be  settled 
now,  and  therefore  cannot  be  discussed  profit- 
ably except  as  a  speculative  exercise.  We 
cannot  measure  the  motives  which  will  be  in 
full  play  in  the  Socialist  era.  We  know  that 
to-day  the  desire  to  accumulate  wealth  is  pre- 
dominant in  most  professions;  on  the  other 
hand,  we  also  know  that  there  are  in  every 
profession  men  who  give  service  without  a 
thought  of  how  much  it  will  bring  into  their 
pockets.  Again,  we  know  that  under  com- 
mercialism material  reward  is  regarded  as  the 
only  tangible  reward,  that  its  amplitude  is  the 
public  sign  of  success,  and  that  men  are  taught 
to  pursue  it  primarily.  Further,  we  know  that 
as  the  standard  of  ability  is  raised  all  round, 
the  rent  of  ability  will  fall,  just  as  the  rent 
of  land  falls  when  the  monopoly  of  land  is 
broken.  We  are  also  justified  in  assuming  that 
as  the  struggle  for  the  necessities  of  life  is  ended, 
the  motives  for  energy  will  become  more  moral 
and  spiritual.  That  is  about  all  we  know. 
Therefore,  when  we  have  approached  nearer  to 
Socialism  than  we  are  now,  different  combina- 
tions of  motives  from  those  with  which  we  have 
to  deal  will  animate  men,  and  so  proposals 
regarding    pay    and    reward    which    would    be 


114      THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

laughed  at  now  as  Utopian  may  in  the  course 
of  time  become  severely  practical. 

This  also  is  the  answer  to  such  objections 
as  that  Socialism  is  impossible  till  human  nature 
changes.  Human  nature  is  always  changing, 
not  in  the  sense  of  becoming  new  as  when  one 
puts  off  one  suit  of  clothes  and  puts  on  another, 
but  in  the  sense  that  the  complex  instincts, 
habits,  'opinions  and  motives  of  which  it  is 
composed,  change  their  relative  importance  and 
produce  different  resultants  in  consequence. 
The  Socialist  method  is  that  of  moving  out 
.st< '|>  by  step  and  of  walking  by  sight  and  by 
faith  at  the  same  time. 


5.   The  Scientific  Method. 

The  scientific  method  employs  the  processes 
of  both  induction  and  deduction.  It  groups 
its  facts,  it  marshals    it>  particulars,  it    pieces 

together  its  bypot  In  •-<■>■.  then  assuming  its 
hypotheses  and  its  systems,  it  explains  its  facts 
and  its  particulars  by  them.  Galileo's  experi- 
ments with  falling  bodies  from  which  he  arrived 
at  the  laws  governing  the  rate  at  which  a 
body  falls  through  space,  consisted  of  a  group- 
ing of  ascertained  facts;  he  enunciated  the 
fact  that  a  projectile  travels  on  a  parabolic 
path  by  a  grouping  of  a  more  complicated  set 
of  facts;  on  the  other  hand,  Darwin's  work 
consisted  not  so  much  in  proving  the  theory 
of  evolution  from  a  series  of  grouped  facts 
(though  he  did  that  more  than  any  of  his  prede- 
cessors),   but   in   using   that   theory   to   explain 


V 


SOCIALIST  METHOD  115 

facts,  and  so  to  this  day  we  hear  occasional 
disputes  as  to  whether  the  Darwinian  method 
was  inductive  or  deductive,  whereas,  as  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,  it  was  a  scientific  blending  of  both. 

The  Socialist  method  is  the  Darwinian  method. 
It  begins  with  social  phenomena,  with  the 
rational  desire  to  group  them  in  systems,  and 
with  the  equally  rational  desire  to  discover 
their  causes  and  visualise  their  complete  ful- 
filment. Its  interest  consists  in  the  whence  and 
whither  of  society. 

What  are  the  facts  in  which  it  is  interested 
to  begin  with?  They  may  be  grouped  under 
the  generic  term  of  poverty.  I  have  shown 
that  the  source  of  this  poverty  is  not  only  in 
personal  shortcomings.  If  that  were  so,  the 
interest  which  is  the  origin  of  the  Socialist 
movement  would  only  have  raised  a  moral 
and  an  educational  problem.  The  source  of 
poverty  being  largely  social,  being  a  recurring 
breakdown  of  the  productive  and  distributive 
machinery  of  society,  has  created  a  sociological 
problem  with  economic,  political  and  moral 
aspects.  In  short,  the  Socialist  sees  a  machine 
that  will  not  work,  an  engine  which  is  always 
slowing  up  and  breaking  down,  and  he  studies 
its  mechanism  to  discover  its  faults.  He  finds 
that  its  parts  do  not  work  together,  that  its 
driving  force  is  not  properly  distributed,  that 
it  generates  an  enormous  amount  of  friction, 
and  that  all  this  arises  because  the  machine 
has  been  thrown  together  by  minds  which  had 
no  conception  of  the  complete  plan  of  the 
mechanism,  but  which  made  a  cylinder,  and  a 
wheel,  and  a  piston  separately  and  apart,  and 


116      THE   SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

then  tried  to  beat  and  hammer  them  all  to- 
gether into  something  like  co-operative  action. 
Such  a  machine  cannot  work,  and  such  is  modern 
industrial  society. 

The  next  step  follows  naturally  upon  the 
first.  I  have  been  using  mechanical  similes, 
but  they  are  imperfect  when  applied  to  society, 
because  they  do  not  reflect  that  social  char- 
acteristic  of  steady  and  consistent  adaptation 
which  is  rather  orgnaie  than  mechanical  in  its 
likeness.  In  .society,  the  Socialist  discovers  this 
tendency  of  readjustment  to  secure  economy 
in  the  expenditure  of  energy.  The  law  of  re- 
adjustment pervades  all  life.  The  deaf  develop 
the  faculty  of  quick  virion  or  sensitive  touch, 
the  blind  of  keen  hearing.  The  plant  in  new 
Surroundings,  either  by  adaptation  or  by  natu- 
ral selection,  changes  it>  leaves,  its  flower,  its 
fruit,  its  roots,  so  as  to  protect  its  life.  The 
animal  DOWS  to  the  same  necessity.  This  adap- 
tation may  be  the  result  of  something  akin  to 
what  we  call  consciousness,  it  may  be  merely 
a  mechanical  adjustment  between  thing  and 
circumstance;  but  the  result  is  the  same — 
variations  which  are  economies  in  life.  So, 
superfluous  organs  atrophy  and  disappear.  No 
organism  can  flourish  hampered  by  useless  or 
clumsy  organs. 

Now,  when  the  Socialist  searches  society  for 
evidence  of  the  operations  of  this  lawr  of  adjust- 
ment he  discovers  it  all  round  him  in  the  form 
of  gropings  after  more  co-operation  and  more 
organisation.  He  finds  law  controlling  economic 
power  and  imposing  social  responsibilities  upon 
individual    ownership.     He    finds    the    common 


SOCIALIST  METHOD  117 

will  and  the  common  well-being  putting  a  bridle 
on  the  neck  of  the  individual  will  and  the  indi- 
vidual interest.  Thus  he  sees  society  begin- 
ning to  assert  itself  again  as  a  personality  of 
all  the  persons,  absorbing  and  transforming 
individual  advantage  into  common  advantage. 
The  weak  are  no  longer  left  unprotected  against 
the  strong.  Children  are  educated,  and  steps 
are  being  taken  to  vindicate  their  right  to  food, 
clothing,  medical  attendance,  play.  These  steps 
are  hesitating  and  they  have  not  been  well 
considered;  but  they  indicate  the  existence  of 
a  social  will  working  for  a  common  advantage. 
The  same  is  true  regarding  women,  whose  physi- 
ology and  psychology  make  them  economically 
weaker  than  men;  it  is  true  of  the  aged;  it  is 
becoming  true  of  the  unemployed.  From  this 
investigation  the  Socialist  rises  with  a  clear 
conception  of  the  social  will  and  conscience 
becoming  active  in  establishing  a  system  of 
protection  of  the  unequally  circumstanced,  which 
will  secure  to  each  individual  an  adequate 
measure  of  individual  development  and  free- 
dom. He  believes  that  that  is  to  continue. 
What  is  now  merely  sympathetic,  will  become 
rational;  what  is  detached  will  become  syste- 
matic. The  rights  of  children,  for  instance,  will 
soon  have  to  be  related  not  only  to  the  con- 
venience of  the  state  but  to  the  responsibilities 
of  parents,  and  the  responsibilities  of  parents 
will  in  turn  have  to  be  set  in  a  system  of  family 
organisation  far  stronger  than  what  can  ever 
be  experienced  under  capitalism.  All  this  the 
Socialist  works  out  from  what  he  sees  going 
on  round  about  him.     He  completes  "the  broken 


118      THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

arc";  he  carries  on  in  idea  the  tendency  which 
he  sees  beginning  to  operate  now;  from  the 
walls  of  the  temple  so  far  built,  he  can  antici- 
pate the  architect's  idea,  continue  the  lines, 
and  form  some  conception  of  the  completed 
fabric. 

The  same  thing  is  true  regarding  the  capitalist 
control  of  industry.  The  law  of  economy  is  at 
work  here  too.  Concentration  is  going  on. 
The  individual  capitalist  gave  birth  to  the 
joint  stock  company,  the  joint  stock  company 
gave  birth  to  the  trust.  The  village  market 
was  merged  in  the  national  market,  and  that 
in  turn  was  merged  in  the  world's  market. 
Separate  businesses  in  related  processes  of  pro- 
duction and  distribution  were  united,  and  after 
that  more  kindred  businesses  were  added  and 
all  controlled  from  one  centre.  Thus  concen- 
tration and  co-ordination  proceed  apace.  Still, 
there  are  great  gaps  in  the  growing  order.  Land, 
labour  and  capital  are  far  from  harmoniously 
co-operating  in  the  production  of  wealth.  And 
the  Socialist,  seeing  what  has  been  done,  and 
discovering  the  rational  principle  upon  which 
it  has  proceeded,  can  project  into  the  future 
the  further  embodiments  of  this  principle,  and 
from  what  is  going  on  make  the  most  effective 
preparations  for  the  completion  of  the  work. 

Similarly,  regarding  what  is  really  the  crux 
of  the  whole  problem:  What  interests  are  to 
control  the  new  order?  The  whole  community 
or  a  class? — the  Socialist  pursues  the  same 
process  of  inquiry.  He  finds  that  the  control 
of  the  land  is  beginning  to  pass  into  the  hands 
of  the  community.     This  is  particularly  notice- 


SOCIALIST  METHOD  119 

able  in  new  settlements,  like  Australia,  where 
forethought  is  determining  legislation  and  where 
that  forethought  is  not  hampered  by  deeply- 
rooted  vested  interests.  But  the  pressure  of 
circumstances  is  also  compelling  older  states 
like  Germany  and  ourselves  to  act  in  the  same 
way.  He  also  finds  that  many  services,  like 
the  supply  of  gas,  water,  trams  and  trains,  are 
being  taken  from  private  management  and  pro- 
vided by  the  municipality  or  the  central  gov- 
ernment. These  services  are  monopolies  for  the 
establishment  of  which  the  public  consent  is 
required,  and  they  are  being  municipalised  for 
reasons  of  public  convenience  and  profit.  An- 
other group  of  services  is  passing  under  public 
control  for  reasons  of  general  health  and  well- 
being.  The  erection  of  working-class  dwellings 
and  the  supply  of  milk  by  municipalities  are 
typical  of  this  kind  of  service,  and  the  medical 
inspection  of  school  children  lies  in  the  same 
category.  In  this  movement  towards  muni- 
cipalisation  we  have  a  proof  that  the  commu- 
nity, as  an  organised  whole,  is  to  control  in  its 
own  interests  those  forms  of  capital,  the  use 
of  which  is  vital  to  its  own  well-being,  and  is 
making  itself  responsible  for  services,  the  quali- 
ties of  which  must  be  kept  high,  but  which 
competition  and  private  interests  lower.  Con- 
trol by  inspectors  is  the  first  stage,  but  in  the 
end  responsibility  for  direct  service  is  being 
accepted  by  the  more  enlightened  and  pro- 
gressive municipalities  of  the  world. 

"This  is  not  Socialism,"  reply  many  critics. 
It  is  not,  but  it  is  the  earnest  of  Socialism.  For 
the  Socialist  sees  that  many  forms  of  capital 


120      THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

and  many  public  services  are  assuming,  with 
time,  the  characteristics  of  those  which  with 
an  all  but  common  consent  are  passing  under 
public  management.  In  Great  Britain,  the  very 
same  reasons  which  justified  the  municipalisa- 
tion  of  trams  exist  to  justify  the  nationalisation 
of  canals  and  railways;  we  are  on  the  verge 
of  a  great  revolution  in  the  care  of  public  health, 
which  will  bring  us  near  to  some  form  of  na- 
tionalisation of  the  medical  service;  in  countries 
like  America  where  the  trust  has  firmly  estab- 
lished itself  and  has  already  shown  its  full  social 
results  of  good  and  evil,  the  cry  is  being  raised: 
"Let  the  nation  own  the  trusts." 

Such  is  the  Socialist  survey  not  merely  of 
things  as  they  have  been  and  now  are,  but  of 
the  drift  of  things.  The  oceanographer  puts 
out  his  little  floats  and  the  currents  carry  them 
hither  and  thither;  thus  the  investigator  knows 
whither  the  waters  run,  and  he  maps  the  path 
of  the  drifting  streams  until  he  has  mastered 
the  circulating  system  of  the  sea.  The  natu- 
ralist gets  his  bone  or  his  tooth,  and  from  it 
he  can  build  up,  limb  upon  limb,  muscle  upon 
muscle,  organ  upon  organ,  the  unknown  animal 
of  which  these  things  were  parts.  The  student 
of  human  nature  from  a  casual  remark,  a  glimpse 
of  a  man's  library,  his  poise  in  walking,  can 
tell  what  manner  of  man  he  has  met  and  his 
life  lies  open  to  the  observing  eye  like  a  book. 
So  the  sociologist,  by  studying  the  social  changes 
going  on  around  him  can  map  the  drift  of  prog- 
ress; by  noting  the  motives  and  the  assump- 
tions upon  which  men  act,  can  trace  the  course 
of  history  through  some  part  of  the  misty  future; 


SOCIALIST  METHOD  121 

by  discovering  the  dream  cities  which  men  have 
built  in  their  hearts  as  abiding  places  for  their 
souls,  can  tell  what  social  fabrics  they  are  to 
raise  by  legislation  and  administration  as  dwell- 
ing-places' for  their  reason. 


CHAPTER  VII 

WIT  AT   SOCIALISM   IS   NOT 

An  examination  of  some  of  the  objections 
urged  against,  and  the  fears  entertained  regard- 
ing, Socialism  will  enable  me  to  explain  its 
principles  and  elucidate  its  methods  and  point 
of  view  still  more  clearly. 

1.  Anarchism  and  Communism 

First  of  all  I  shall  deal  with  thr  relation  of 
Socialism  a>  a  system  of  political  and  econo- 
mic thought  t«i  other  systems  with  which  it  is 
often  confused — particularly  with  Communism 
and  Anarchism. 

Communism  presupposes  a  common  store  of 
wealth  which  i>  to  be  drawn  upon  by  the  indi- 
vidual consumer,  not  in  accordance  with  ser- 
vices rendered,  but  in  response  to  "a  human 
right  to  sustenance."  It  may  be  in  accordance 
with  Communist  principles  to  make  this  right 
to  consume  depend  upon  the  duty  of  helping 
to  produce,  and  to  exile  from  the  economic 
community  every  one  who  declines  to  fulfil 
that  duty.  Some  communists  insist  that  one 
of  the  certain  results  of  their  system  will  be  the 

122 


WHAT  SOCIALISM  IS  NOT        123 

creation  of  so  much  moral  robustness  that  in 
practice  this  question  will  never  arise  for  actual 
answer.  But  be  that  as  it  may,  the  distribu- 
tive philosophy  of  Communism  is  as  I  have 
stated,  and  it  contains  the  difference  between 
that  system  and  Socialism.  "From  all  accord- 
ing to  their  ability;  to  each  according  to  his 
needs"  is  a  Communist,  not  a  Socialist,  formula. 
The  Socialist  would  insert  "services"  for  "needs." 
They  both  agree  about  the  common  stock; 
they  disagree  regarding  the  nature  of  what 
should  be  the  effective  claim  of  the  individual 
to  share  in  it.  Socialists  think  of  distribution 
through  the  channels  of  personal  income;  Com- 
munists think  of  distribution  through  the  chan- 
nels of  human  rights  to  live.  Hence  Socialism 
requires  some  medium  of  exchange  whether  it 
is  pounds  sterling  or  labour  notes;  Communism 
requires  no  such  medium  of  exchange.  The 
difference  can  best  be  illustrated  if  we  remem- 
ber the  difference  between  a  customer  going 
to  a  grocer  and  buying  sugar,  and  a  child  of  the 
family  claiming  a  share  of  that  sugar  next  morn- 
ing at  the  breakfast  table.  Or  the  position 
may  be  stated  in  this  way:  Socialism  accepts 
the  idea  of  income,  subject  to  two  safeguards. 
It  must  be  adequate  to  afford  a  satisfactory 
standard  of  life,  and  it  must  represent  services 
given  and  not  merely  a  power  to  exploit  the 
labour  of  others.  Communism  only  considers 
the  sum  total  required  by  an  individual  to 
satisfy  his  wants  and  would  limit  consumption 
only  as  regards  the  use  to  which  it  is  put. 

Communist  economic  theories  are  often  joined 
to   Anarchist   political    ones,    and   in   this   con- 


124      THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

junction  are  not  unrarely  confused  with  Social- 
ism. Anarchism  as  a  political  theory  (as  a 
mode  of  political  action  the  word  has  a  totally 
different  significance)  is  the  negation  of  the 
coercive  -fate,  and  there  is  far  more  in  common 
between  it  and  anti-Socialist  individualism  of 
the  Herbert  Spencer  type  than  between  it  and 
Socialism,  of  which  it  is  indeed  the  direct  anti- 
thesis. The  Anarchist  theory  presupposes  either 
no  state,  or  a  state  bound  together  by  moral 
and  social  motives  by  which  is  maintained  a 
purely  voluntary  relationship.  So  we  may  ex- 
press the  difference  between  Socialism  and 
Anarchism  as  being  political,  the  one  believing 
in  the  continuance  of  the  legislative,  and  there- 
fore coervice,  state,  the  other  believing  only  in 
an  administrative  and  voluntary  state.1  An- 
archism is  in  reality  a  form  of  individualism 
and  cannot  be  dissociated  from  individualistic 
theories. 

There  is  another  difference.  Underlying  the 
philosophy  of  Anarchism  is  the  belief  in  the 
goodness  of  human  nature,  which,  with  the 
exception  of  the  doctrines  of  Fourier  also  shines 
so  brightly  in  the  beliefs  and  expectations  of 
the  earlier  Socialists.  The  Socialism  of  to-day 
does  not  build  itself  up  upon  the  goodness,  but 
upon  the  sociality,  of  human  nature. 

Besides,  as  a  matter  of  experience,  all  over 
the  world,   from  France  to  America  and   from 

1  It  is  true  that  some  of  the  fathers  of  modern  Socialism 
wrote  of  the  final  disappearance  of  the  state,  but  as  I  have 
shown  elsewhere — Socialism  and  Government — this  is  only 
a  verbal  declaration,  the  idea  of  the  state  being  essential  to 
Socialism. 


WHAT  SOCIALISM  IS  NOT         125 

Italy  to  Japan,  the  Anarchist  movement  is  in 
conflict  with  the  Socialist  movement,  and  the 
earlier  history  of  modern  Socialism  is  storm- 
swept  by. the  furious  conflicts  of  Anarchism 
with  Socialism.  And  yet,  by  a  curious  twist- 
ing of  actual  fact,  many  people  associate  these 
two  opposing  systems  of  political  thought,  as 
though  they  were  the  same,  the  reason  probably 
being  that  every  kind  of  opposition  to  the  exist- 
ing order  is  grouped  together  and  made  identical 
in  minds  not  accustomed  to  discriminate  in  an 
intelligent  way. 


2.   The  Abolition  of  Private  Property. 

An  examination  of  the  current  notions  re- 
garding the  Socialist  view  about  property  and 
what  is  indeed  the  real  view  is  equally  enlight- 
ening. The  common  idea  is  that  Socialism 
proposes  to  abolish  private  property.  That  is 
no  less  mistaken  than  is  the  view  that  Socialism 
and  Anarchism  are  one  and  the  same  thing. 
Private  property  in  one  of  its  aspects  is  a  limi- 
tation of  the  liberty  of  the  woods,  under  which 
he  who  had  the  power  took  what  he  wanted, 
and  of  the  struggle  for  life — although  it  may 
be  used  to  revive  this  ancient  form  of  liberty 
and  this  objectionable  method  of  selection.  It 
puts  an  end  to  the  strife  of  keeping — although 
it  may  be  used  to  exploit.  It  runs  counter  to 
the  physical  struggle  of  the  survival  of  the 
fittest  individual  and  secures  the  survival  of 
the  fittest  community.  Of  all  that  Socialism 
approves,   and   it   consequently   aims   at   elimi- 


126       THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

nating  the  evil  consequences  of  private  prop- 
erty and  realising  its  desirable  possibilities.  Its 
proposals  and  views  regarding  private  property 
form  part  of  its  general  purpose  of  preventing 
the  growth  of  private  interests  which  prey 
upon,  or  are  otherwise  antagonistic  to,  social 
well-being. 

It  is  said  that  the  existing  system  is  based 
upon  the  right  to  private  posaesmoiL  That, 
however,  is  a  profound  mistake.  The  oft- 
quoted  pronouncement  of  John  Stuart  Mill 
may  be  quoted  again,  for  it  has  lost  none  of 
its  force  and  none  of  its  truth.  lie  wrote:1 
'Tin-  reward,  instead  <>f  being  proportioned 
to  the  labour  and  abstinence  of  the  individ- 
ual is  almost  in  an  inverse  ratio  to  it:  those 
who  receive  the  least,  labour  and  abstain  the 
most." 

That  is,  indeed,  the  position.  How  any  one 
after  reading  the  reports  of  any  investigation 
made  into  social  conditions  to-day,  or  after 
studying  the  statistics  of  wealth  distribution  in 
this  or  any  other  industrial  country,  can  con- 
tinue to  harbour  the  delusion  that  society  is 
kept  going  because  the  individual  possesses 
private  property,  is  unthinkable.  The  facts  do 
not  fit  in  with  the  theory.  One  of  the  most 
drama tii-  features  of  society  to-day  is  the  vast 
number  included  in  the  propertyless  class. 
Nine-tenths  of  the  wage-earners  of  the  country 
work  with  no  thought  of  accumulating  prop- 
erty, but  with  the  sole  idea  of  making  ends 
meet  day  by  day,  and  week  by  week;    the  re- 

1  Fortnightly  Renew,  1879,  p.  226. 


WHAT  SOCIALISM  IS  NOT         127 

mainder  see  no  fairer  prospect  ahead  than  the 
saving  of  enough  money  to  invest  in  some  in- 
surance club  or  to  lay  by  in  preparation  for  the 
inevitable  time  of  trade  depression  and  unem- 
ployment. ,  If  it  were  true  that  men  will  work 
only  to  own  property  there  is  not  the  induce- 
ment for  a  single  week's  hard  manual  labour 
in  modern  society.  The  significance  of  working- 
class  savings  is  constantly  exaggerated.  Only  in 
the  very  rarest  of  instances  do  they  give  extra 
enjoyment  or  mean  a  higher  standard  of  life; 
in  nearly  every  case  they  simply  lie  in  reserve 
lest  a  misfortune  should  come,  and  they  are 
not  sufficient  to  remove  or  to  modify  the  one 
economic  motive  which  makes  the  working 
classes  toil,  namely,  the  fear  of  speedy  hard- 
ship if  they  cease  to  toil.  They  are  useful  in 
the  day  of  trouble;  they  are  not  large  enough 
to  be  of  appreciable  value  in  the  day  of  steady 
work.  If  men  could  be  insured  against  un- 
employment and  sickness,  the  workman's  sav- 
ings would  cease  to  have  any  influence  upon 
his  life. 

Only  a  few,  a  very  small  class,  enjoy  to-day 
the  pleasure  and  the  freedom  which  comes 
from  private  property,  and  a  great  part  of  that 
class  has  ceased  to  give  active  service  to  society. 
They  loan  money  rather  than  use  it;  they 
abstract  rents  rather  than  make  profits.  Though 
it  may  have  been  true  some  time  ago  that  the 
stream  constantly  flowing  from  the  status  of 
workman  to  that  of  employer,  gladdened  the 
heart  of  the  workman  and  held  out  prospects 
to  him  that  one  day  he  might  embark  on  its 
waters,   that   stream  is  very   narrow  and   very 


128      THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

shallow  now,  and,  in  comparison  with  the  mul- 
titudes who  never  start  upon  it  or  who  sink 
in  its  upper  reaches,  those  who  navigate 
successfully  are  insignificant  in  numbers.  Nor 
are  the  prizes  so  good.  The  master  with  his 
independence,  his  property  privileges  and  liber- 
ties, his  dignity,  has  become  a  manager,  a  direc- 
tor, with  no  dignity  and  very  little  honour. 
He  has  become  merely  a  rich  man,  and  the 
glamour  which  civic  office,  local  influence  and 
general  respect  used  to  throw  upon  riches  has 
gone,  and  has  left  them  cold,  glaring  and  vul- 
gar. Hence  the  recent  changes  in  business 
organisation  have  altered  the  nature  of  the 
appeal  that  is  made  to  the  ambitious  plebeian. 
A  generation  or  two  ago  the  man  rose  to  honour, 
and  that  had  a  selective  effect  upon  the  kind 
of  man  who  rose;  now-a-days  the  man  rises  to 
money,  to  salary,  to  warehouse  and  factory 
authority,  and  nothing  more,  and  that  also  has 
a  selective  effect  on  the  kind  of  man  who  rises. 
The  second  method  of  selection  gives  poorer 
results  than  the  fir>t. 

Not  only  do  the  facts  of  wealth  distribution 
contradict  the  assumption  that  it  is  the  pos- 
s<  ->ion  of  private  property  which  is  the  basis 
of  our  society,  but  the  kind  of  enjoyment  at- 
tached to  commercial  success  which  is  being 
evolved  by  business  changes  is  not  so  great 
as  that  which,  so  far  as  social  respect  and  per- 
sonal liberty  are  concerned,  was  the  lot  of  the 
business  man  who  managed  his  own  capital 
and  felt  himself  and  his  wealth  integral  parts 
of  his  town  to  be  spent  in  the  service  of  the 
town. 


WHAT  SOCIALISM  IS  NOT        129 

The  truth  is  that  society  to-day  is  based 
on  the  fact  that  the  majority  of  people  can 
never  acquire  enough  private  property  to  give 
them  much  liberty  of  action  and  choice  in  con- 
sumption, and  that  is  one  of  the  gravest  charges 
brought  against  it  by  Socialism.  The  reward 
for  which  men  work  to-day,  is  not  private  prop- 
erty, but  a  week's  wages. 

Now,  what  is  the  Socialist  view? 

The  Socialist  assumes  that  individuality  re- 
quires private  property  through  which  to  express 
itself.  Man  must  control  and  own  something, 
otherwise  he  does  not  control  and  own  him- 
self. And  as  Socialism  is  not  a  cut-and-dried 
set  of  dogmas  to  be  pieced  into  a  system  like 
one  of  those  puzzles  made  by  cutting  up  a  pic- 
ture into  many  confusing  fragments,  but  an 
idea  which  is  to  be  realized  by  a  continuation 
of  experimental  change,  we  may  rest  assured 
that  none  of  the  incidents  which  are  to  be  met 
with  on  the  way  will  abolish  private  property. 
The  ownership  of  things  will  always  be  a  means 
of  expressing  personality,  and  this  fact  will 
not  be  forgotten  in  the  evolution  of  Socialism. 
Indeed  some  Socialists — for  instance  Kautsky, 
the  most  uncompromising  of  Marxists — have 
stated  that  people  might  own  their  own  houses 
and  their  own  gardens  under  Socialism,  and 
provided  there  is  a  proper  system  of  taxation 
intercepting  unearned  income  in  the  shape  of 
economic  rent  there  is  nothing  in  this  concession 
contrary  to  Socialist  theory. 

It  also  follows  from  this  that  objection  to 
inheritance  is  not  an  essential  part  of  the  So- 
cialist  system.     The   Socialist   need   not  object 


130      THE  SOCIALIST   MOVEMENT 

to  the  bequeathing  of  private  property  as  such; 
he  only  objects  to  bequeathing  it  under  condi- 
tions which  determine  that  the  inheritance  of 
the  multitude  must  be  poverty. 

In  discussing  this  and  kindred  questions  two 
guiding  facts  ought  to  be  kept  in  mind.  The 
fir>t  is  that  Socialism,  on  its  moral  side,  is  a 
means  to  tin1  establishment  of  true  individual 
liberty;  and  the  second  that  Socialism,  on  its 
economic  side,  is  a  system  under  which  an  end 
will  be  put  to  exploitation.  The  second  pur- 
pose of  Socialism  i>  thai  which  sets  the  bounds 
to  the  ownership  of  private  property. 

All  through  history  the  limitation  of  the 
subjects  and  the  rights  of  property  has  pro- 
ceeded side  by  side  with  the  expansion  of  liberty. 
Property  in  human  beings  has  had  to  be  denied, 
but  it  was  defended  most  stoutly  and  was  held 
to  be  an  unassailable  right  by  philosophers 
and  humanists,  as  well  as  by  the  cloffOCfl  that 
enjoyed  it.  And  yet  the  mere  liberation  of  the 
human  body  from  the  BCope  of  private  property 
IS  not  sufficient,  because  it  has  been  found  that 
the  human  will — the  human  personality— can  be 
put  in  bondage  through  certain  forms  of  eco- 
nomic possession,  so  that  unless  men  are  to 
abandon  their  pilgrimage  in  search  of  liberty 
they  must  supplement  their  anti-slavery  cam- 
paigns with  campaigns  designed  to  put  an  end 
to  private  property  in  those  economic  forces 
which  may  be  used  to  produce  a  slavery  of 
the  will.  Now,  how  is  property  used  at  the 
present  time? 

In  the  first  place,  its  chief  function  to-day, 
from  my  present  point  of  view,  is  that  of  ex- 


*■ 


WHAT  SOCIALISM  IS  NOT         131 

ploitation.  In  the  form  of  capital  it  is  required 
by  labour,  and  with  the  increase  in  the  amount 
of  capital  required  to  carry  on  modern  industry 
labour  finds  it  increasingly  difficult  to  be  more 
than  the  agent  of  capital  and  to  avoid  being 
the  slave  of  capital.  Ledger  balances,  not 
moral  or  human  considerations,  assign  a  place 
to  labour  in  the  industrial  system.  And  as 
labour  loses  its  power  to  bargain  effectively 
with  capital,1  it  becomes  more  liable  to  be  ground 
down  in  the  competitive  market  in  which  it 
is  subject  to  the  same  laws  as  any  other  com- 
modity. Thus  it  has  come  about  that  the 
ownership  of  property,  justified  as  it  is  by  the 
fundamental  characteristics  and  the  most  primi- 
tive requirements  of  human  nature,  becomes  an 
instrument  for  depriving  great  masses  of  people 
of  property.  The  private  ownership  of  the 
means  of  production  implies  the  private  owner- 
ship, by  the  same  class,  of  the  products  them- 
selves, and  that  again  implies  the  exploitation 
of  the  workman  and  his  condemnation  to  a 
state  of  poverty.  Thus  the  present  system 
upholds  private  property  in  such  a  way  as  to 
confine  private  property  to  a  comparatively 
small  class  in  the  community. 

The  present  system  fails  to  do  the  very  thing 
which  it  proposes  to  do,  because  its  lack  of 
design  means  that  it  defeats  itself  in  its  own 
working.  It  is  like  a  man  so  disorganised  in 
his  nerve  centres  that  every  time  he  lifts  his 
hand  to  strike  some  one  else  he  injures  him- 
self. 

1  Cf.  Chap,  II„  p.  50. 


132      THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

This  is  particularly  true  of  private  property 
in  natural  monopolies,  like  land.  The  experi- 
ence of  every  people  in  the  world,  whether  it 
be  a  barbaric  tribe  or  a  civilised  nation,  is  that, 
when  land  becomes  subject  to  private  proprie- 
torship, poverty  inevitably  follows. 

In  consequence  of  this  the  Socialist  has  come 
to  the  conclusion  that  where  industrial  capital 
is  not  the  subject  of  communal  control  and  use, 
and  where  natural  monopolies  arc  in  the  pos- 
sesion of  individuals,  it  is  economically  impos- 
sible for  masses  of  people  to  acquire  private 
property  at  all.  The  socialisation  of  certain 
fnnns  of  property  is  a  condition  necessary  for 
the  genera]  diffusion  <>f  private  property.  The 
nationalisation  of  industrial  capital  and  of  the 
laud  is  therefore  not  the  fir>t  stage  of  the  aboli- 
tion of  all  private  property,  but  is  exactly  the 
opposite.  The  result  of  the  operations  of  a 
society  which  allows  private  property  in  every- 
thing, is  determinedly  a  law  of  concentration 
and  accumulation,  the  effect  of  which  may  be 
expressed  in  biblical  language:  "Into  every 
one  that  hath  shall  be  given,  but  from  him 
that  hath  not  shall  be  taken  away  even  that 
which  he  hath."  The  idea  that  capitalist  so- 
ciety is  based  on  private  property  is  a  mere 
chimera. 


3.  The  Negation  of  Liberty. 

So  too  as  regards  liberty.  A  common  view 
of  Socialism  is  that  it  will  crush  liberty  out 
by  its  laws,  regulations  and  uniformities.     Those 


WHAT  SOCIALISM  IS  NOT         133 

who  take  this  view  look  upon  Socialism  as  a 
ponderous  organisation  under  which  the  state 
will  own  everything  and  prescribe  how  people 
are  to  do  things,  what  trades  they  are  to  follow, 
and  how  .they  are  to  employ  their  leisure 
moments. 

The  first  answer — and  indeed  it  is  the  only 
one  worth  making — to  these  objectors  is  that 
if  they  really  know  what  Socialism  means,  and 
if  their  description  of  it  is  not  a  caricature,  it 
is  so  absurdly  irrational  and  so  contrary  to 
human  nature  and  purpose  that  no  one  can 
advocate  it  except  those  with  twists  in  their 
minds,  and  no  community  of  men  will  ever 
adopt  it.  Socialism  would  then  be  but  an 
aberration  of  the  human  intellect,  and  so  far 
from  being  a  serious  movement,  it  would  only 
be  a  curiosity.  This  conclusion,  however,  is  so 
inconsistent  with  what  we  know  of  the  intel- 
lectual strength  of  the  Socialist  ranks,  so  in- 
consistent too  with  its  power  upon  the  minds 
of  men,  that  it  must  be  drawn  from  premises 
of  error.  And  that  is  so.  The  critical  de- 
scription of  Socialism  to  which  I  have  just 
referred  is  a  mere  clumsy  caricature. 

I  have  just  explained  the  Socialist  position 
regarding  property,  and  from  that  it  must  have 
been  clear  that  one  of  the  specifically  declared 
intentions  of  Socialists  is  to  create  the  condi- 
tions of  liberty.  Hitherto  our  ideas  of  liberty 
have  been  narrowed  and  misled  by  the  pursuit 
of  political  liberty.  We  are  just  at  the  end  of 
the  liberal  epoch,  and  the  liberal  epoch  is  that 
of  the  middle  and  the  commercial  classes,  the 
classes  which  enjoyed  economic  power,  and  which 


134      THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

therefore  had  to  agitate  for,  and  philosophise 
about,  political  enfranchisement  only.  From 
their  particular  point  of  view  political  enfran- 
chisement was  precious  as  a  stamp  of  social 
status  and  as  a  means  of  destroying  certain 
inequalities  and  impediments  which  the  com- 
mercialist  nineteenth  century  inherited  from  the 
militarist  middle  ages.  Thus  the  liberty  of 
the  liberal  epoch  meant  a  condition  in  which 
a  comparatively  small  Dumber  of  people  held 
economic  power  in  a  state  whose  positive  po- 
[itical  activities  were  reduced  to  a  minimum. 
The  ring  of  life  was  to  be  kept  clear  and  the 
heavy-weights  were  to  be  allowed  to  dominate 
it.  Such  a  view  of  liberty  could  not  be  more 
than  a  passing  thing,  could  not  yield  accept- 
able fruits.  Hut  that  is  the  intellectual  inher- 
itance with  which  this  generation  is  encum- 
bered. We  have  to  begin  anew  our  search  for  the 
talisman. 

First  of  all,  we  have  to  understand  that  lib- 
erty is  conditioned;  and  then  we  have  to  under- 
stand that  it  is  something  which  relates  to 
qualities,  and  not  only  to  quantities. 

It  is  conditioned,  for  if  a  man  is  dependent 
upon  another  man's  bounty  for  his  very  exist- 
ence, he  may  live  under  a  state  of  the  most 
beautiful  moral  anarchism  and  yet  be  a  slave. 
I  have  shown  that  owing  to  the  enormous  growth 
of  the  economic  power  in  modern  society,  the 
real  effective  control  on  man's  outgoings  and 
incomings  is  becoming  more  and  more  economic. 
To  express  this,  the  Socialist  uses  the  term 
wage-slavery.  Much  objection  is  taken  to  this 
term,  in  the  elaboration  of  which  we  are  treated 


V 


WHAT  SOCIALISM  IS  NOT         135 

to  instructive  lessons  on  the  characteristic  fea- 
tures of  chattel-slavery,  all  of  which  are  beside 
the  mark,  simply  because  wage-slavery  is  not 
chattel-slavery,  and  no  Socialist  confuses  the 
one  with  the  other.  The  characteristic  feature 
of  wage-slavery  is  that  men  are  absolutely  de- 
pendent for  their  living  upon  other  men  in  an 
economic  system  the  workings  of  which  they 
cannot  control — that  the  machine,  the  market, 
the  hierarchy  of  commercial  magnates  hold  the 
man  in  their  keeping.  Or  it  may  be  put  in 
the  form  of  a  self-evident  proposition  thus:  If 
liberty  is  conditioned,  he  who  controls  the  con- 
ditions controls  the  liberty.  This  is  one  of  the 
reasons  why  Socialists  assert  that  commerce 
and  the  capital  required  for  carrying  it  on 
must  be  under  collective,  and  not  individual, 
control. 

But,  it  is  said,  whilst  the  Socialist  would 
submit  the  economic  conditions  of  liberty  to 
communal  control,  that  control  under  Socialism 
would  become  a  tyranny  in  other  ways. 
It  would  fashion  laws  and  regulations  which 
would  hamper  liberty  and  put  shackles  upon 
individual  initiative  and  action. 

This  consideration  is  serious  only  to  those 
who  have  never  grasped  the  democratic  char- 
acter of  the  Socialist  state.  For  that  state 
will  not  be  a  vast  centralised  bureaucracy  with 
its  head-quarters  in  imperial  offices  in  White- 
hall. Already,  thanks  very  largely  to  Socialist 
influences,  decentralisation  is  beginning  to  ap- 
pear in  our  system  of  administration,  and  we 
are  preparing  to  consider  views  which  will  have 
very   far-reaching   practical   importance   regard- 


136      THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

ing  the  relations  between  central  and  local 
legislation  and  administration.  The  tendency  to 
decentralise  will  undoubtedly  proceed  pari  passu 
with  the  tendency  of  the  state  to  co-operate 
more  definitely  with  the  individual  in  working 
out  his  liberty. 

When  this  truly  democratic  view  of  the  state 
is  definitely  grasped,  the  ominous  character  of 
the  objections  I  am  now  considering  changes. 
The  frown  melts  into  a  smile.  The  officers 
who  call  upon  happy  families  to  take  to  a  state 
institution  the  latest  born  so  that  it  may  grow 
ii])  under  the  inspiring  impartiality  of  a  number 
rather  than  be  weighted  and  prejudiced  by  a 
soft-hearted  mother  and  a  family  name,  appear 
to  be  nothing  more  substantial  than  the  hob- 
goblins of  our  youthful  days  which  made  us 
lie  awake  at  nights  or  run  home  in  the  dark 
with  our  hair  on  end.  Whole  troops  of  anti- 
Socialist  horrors  dissolve  into  something  less 
real  than  shadows  when  sane  adults  look  at 
them  a  second  time. 

Like  all  crowds,  all  tribes,  all  companion- 
ships, the  Socialist  community  will  be  swayed 
by  two  contrary  motions,  the  coercion  of  dis- 
cipline (the  common  life)  and  the  freedom  of 
will  (the  individual  life);  and  each  will  have 
an  absolute  sway  in  some  fields,  and  in  others 
will  have  to  accept  compromises,  limitations  and 
modifications.  But  the  problems  which  this 
conflict  will  create  will  belong  to  the  Socialist 
state  itself,  which  will  certainly  not  be  a  stag- 
nant state,  and  they  need  not  be  discussed  in 
detail  now.  All  that  has  to  be  done  at  present 
is  to  emphasise  the  fact  that  the  impulses  which 


WHAT  SOCIALISM  IS  NOT        137 

have  driven  men  so  far  on  the  road  in  search 
of  liberty  will  cross  the  Socialist  boundary  and 
remain  in  full  operation  after  that. 

And  we  must  also  insist  that  laws  and  regu- 
lations are  "not  only  not  antagonistic  to  liberty, 
but  are  the  very  conditions  of  liberty.  They 
are  the  expressions  of  the  social  life;  they  are 
the  signs  of  warning,  the  directing  finger  posts 
which  the  experience  of  the  past  has  set  up  for 
the  guidance  of  the  future;  they  are  the  wisdom 
which  men  have  picked  up  on  the  way.  They 
are,  so  to  speak,  the  hard  bony  structure  of 
conduct  which  supports — and  which  alone  can 
support — the  mobile  activities  through  which 
the  free  will  finds  play.  Moreover,  they  are 
what  may  be  called  the  economies  of  liberty. 
For  liberty  is  like  wealth,  in  that  it  should  be 
carefully  used  if  it  is  to  fulfil  its  purpose.  Laws 
and  regulations  prevent  its  misuse,  and  make 
easy  its  proper  use.  Where  two  persons  use 
the  road,  they  have  to  devise  some  rule  of  the 
road;  where  two  persons  do  business,  they 
have  to  agree  to  the  conditions  of  contract; 
where  two  persons  form  a  community,  they 
have  to  provide  for  common  liberty  as  well  as 
for  individual  freedom.  Liberty  is  an  adjust- 
ment of  opposites.  When  Liberty  is  sovereign, 
Control  is  her  chief  adviser. 

Indeed,  liberty  in  a  society  becomes  a  depart- 
ment of  duty,  not  of  right,  because  individual 
activity  can  so  easily  become  anti-social  and 
destructive.  Consequently,  liberty  is  less  a 
matter  of  breadths,  than  of  heights  and  depths 
and  of  infinite  extensions  ahead.  The  liberty 
of  a  boat  on  a  river  is  not   to  go   hither  and 


138      THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

thither  from  bank  to  bank  as  the  whim  of  the 
helmsman  directs,  but  to  keep  its  course  accord- 
ing to  the  rules. 

From  this  view,  one  cannot  blot  out  the  fact 
that  liberty  ultimately  must  depend  on  human 
quality.  The  good  man  alone  is  free,  and  the 
good  man  is  he  who  is  conscious  of  his  social 
obligations.  "Take  my  yoke  upon  you"  has 
been  the  advice  of  every  great  ethical  teacher 
to  men  in  search  of  liberty.  Every  restraint 
upon  human  activity,  every  form  of  restrictive 
islation,  is  not  wise,  and  is  not  Socialism. 
Por  restrainl  and  law  are  but  means  towards 
ends  and  must  accept  the  test  which  the 
complete   Socialist    theory    itself    must    accept: 

Ifl  it  rational!-'  Is  it  necessary?  Is  it  a  con- 
tribution to  B  wider  freedom?  But  certain  it 
is  that  when  liberty  is  at  last  found — if  that 
treasure  is  ever  to  be  found  by  unhappy  man 
— it  will  be  in  an  organised  state  with  just  laws 
and  a  well-devised  system  of  mutual  protection 
and  aid. 

4.  Equality . 

And  there  is  one  other  aim  which  pilgrim 
man  seems  to  be  seeking  to  which  reference 
must  be  made.  Underlying  the  aphorism  of 
Kant  that  every  man  is  an  end  in  himself  is 
a  claim  that  there  is  something  so  special  in 
the  possession  of  human  qualities,  that  it  en- 
titles men  to  stand  on  a  plane  of  equality  one 
with  another.  This  claim  has  been  associated 
with  Socialism,  and  its  critics  have  thereupon 
started  on  many  a  mad  wild-goose  chase  after 


V 


WHAT  SOCIALISM  IS  NOT         1S9 

their  own  shadow.  They  even  believe  that  they 
have  run  the  thing  to  earth.  For  it  is  asked, 
How  can  men  be  equal?  Equal  in  what?  And 
so  on. 

What  dp  Socialists  mean  by  equality?  They 
mean  that  the  inequalities  in  the  tastes,  the 
powers,  the  capacities  of  men  may  have  some 
chance  of  having  a  natural  outlet,  so  that  they 
may  each  have  an  opportunity  to  contribute 
their  appropriate  services  to  society.  The  co- 
operation of  unlikes  and  inequalities  in  the 
production  of  a  harmonious  whole  is  the  So- 
cialist's view  of  the  perfect  community;  at  the 
same  time  it  is  his  view  of  the  only  equality 
which  human  nature  has  ever  sought.  This  is 
not  an  aim  which  can  be  reached  at  a  given 
moment  in  life.  It  means  that  at  stage  after 
stage  in  the  development  of  a  personality  oppor- 
tunities should  be  given  to  it  to  advance  in 
certain  directions,  so  that  in  the  end  the  man 
of  artistic  imagination  may  not  find  himself 
bound  behind  a  grocer's  counter,  or  the  youth 
of  mathematical  genius  be  sent  as  a  "little 
piecer"  to  a  Lancashire  cotton  mill. 

Consequently,  the  purpose  is  generally  stated 
as  being  to  secure  "equality  of  opportunity." 
Every  child  starts  with  every  door  open  in  front 
of  him  and  as  he  goes  on  he  finds  no  one  closed 
against  him  which  he  can  profitably  enter.  It 
is  somewhat  difficult  to  deny  the  justice  and 
desirability  of  such  a  plan,  and  as  a  rule  the 
Socialist  is  met,  not  with  that  opposition,  but 
with  arguments  showing  that  Socialism  far  less 
than  capitalism  will  solve  the  problem  of  how 
to  keep  poets  away  from  the  backs  of  counters 


HO      THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

and  young  mathematicians  from  mules.  With 
that  I  shall  deal  in  the  next  chapter.  Mr. 
Mullock,  however,  is  bold  enough  to  try  and 
enter  the  lists  against  us  on  the  merits  of  the 
idea  itself.  Nobody  misunderstands  Socialism 
so  courageously  as  Mr.  Mallock,  and  I  refer 
to  his  argument  in  order  to  make  the  Socialist 
idea  clear.  He  says  ■  that  the  idea  is  purely 
abstract  and  has  to  be  brought  down  into  touch 
with  actuality.  And  this  IS  how  he  does  it. 
It  implies,  he  says,  that  at  the  beginning  of 
industrial  life  all  should  start  at  the  same  place 
and  in  the  same  path.  That  is  absurd.  If 
tu<>    boys    start    German    together,    he   argues, 

one  will  learn  faster  than  the  other,  and  there- 
fore there  is  no  equality  of  opportunity  between 
them.  Which  again  i>  absurd,  for  the  equal 
start  i>  the  equality  asked  for.  His  third  point 
is  that  under  Socialism  an  employee  of  a  state 
factory  would  have  no  more  equality  of  oppor- 
tunity than  an  employee  of  a  private  concern. 
Whether  he  has  or  has  not  may  be  a  debatable 
point,  but  as  I  shall  try  to  show  in  my  next 
chapter  Socialist  industrial  organisation  will 
allow  the  be^t  men  the  widest  scope  of  useful- 
ness which  can  only  be  secured  by  equal  oppor- 
tunities for  those  who  run  equal  up  to  the  point 
of  entering  industrial  life.  He  then  turns  to 
discuss  inventions  and  inventors,  and  returns 
to  his  subject  to  point  out  that  failures  must 
be  weeded  out — a  certain  result  of  equality  of 
opportunity.  This  brings  him  to  wind  up  his 
argument,  and  in  surveying  it  a  suspicion  seems 

1  A  Critical  Examination  of  Socialism.     Chap.  XV. 


WHAT  SOCIALISM  IS  NOT        141 

to  have  stolen  into  his  mind  that  he  had  to  pin 
up  its  rather  fragile  structure.  So  he  admits 
that  "an  equality  of  opportunity  which  is  rela- 
tive" (whatever  that  may  mean)  may  be  a 
useful  ideal,  but  that  "the  absolute  equality 
which  is  contemplated  by  the  Socialists  [wher- 
ever he  got  that  notion]  is  an  ideal  which  either 
could  not  be  realised  at  all,"  etc.  etc.  He  set 
out  to  discuss  equality  of  opportunity  to  use 
faculties;  he  concluded  by  pointing  out  the 
absurdity  of  supposing  that  every  man  could 
do  the  same  thing,  rise  through  life  in  the  same 
way,  demand  the  same  kind  of  facilities,  and  test, 
at  the  expense  of  the  state,  whether  he  was 
really  as  great  a  genius  as  he  himself  believed — 
not  one  of  these  points  being  involved  in  the 
proposition  which  they  are  supposed  to  destroy. 
Mr.  Mullock's  fifteenth  chapter  is  an  admirable 
illustration  of  the  intellectual  quality  of  the 
greater  bulk  of  anti-Socialist  criticism,  and  I 
have  only  referred  to  it  because  it  has  enabled 
me  to  throw  up  into  clearer  light  what  the 
Socialist  view  of  equality  is  by  indicating  what 
it  is  not. 

5.  Economic  Determinism. 

There  is  another  class  of  objections  to  which 
it  will  be  most  convenient  to  refer  at  this  point. 
They  arise  from  the  mistakes  of  Socialists  them- 
selves, and  are  an  inheritance  from  the  first 
generation  of  "scientific  Socialists."  It  was 
necessary  that  Marx  and  his  contemporaries 
should  attempt  to  devise  some  shibboleth  which 
would   sharply   mark   off   Socialism   from   other 


142      THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

theories  of  social  reformation  and  from  vague 
expressions  of  philanthropic  goodness,  and  not 
a  few  of  these  attempts  have  suffered  and  have 
failed  because,  in  addition  to  embodying  what 
is  essential  to  a  Socialist  creed,  they  have  also 
reflected  what  were  the  personal  views  of  the 
writers  on  unessential  matters,  or  they  have 
been  coloured  and  moulded  in  the  thought  of 
the  time  when  they  were  first  stated.  I  shall 
deal  with  two  of  them. 

Socialism  to-day  suffers  because  it  has  re- 
( <iv<>d  an  inheritance  of  scientific  materialism 
from  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
when  the  intellect  of  the  West  was  occupied 
and  entranced  by  the  discoveries  of  biological 
science,  by  the  rude  shaking  which  biological 
evolution  gave  to  spiritual  expressions  and 
phenomena,  by  the  systematic  orderliness  in 
which  economic  explanations  set  many  histori- 
cal events,  and  by  the  enthusiasm  for  materia 
alist  solutions  which  was  natural  to  the  time. 
This  gave  rise  to  the  shibboleth  of  the  materi- 
alist conception  of  history,  which  a  section  of 
Socialist  thought  still  tries  to  impose  on  the 
Socialist  movement.  The  materialist  concep- 
tion of  history  is  the  view  that  the  motive  for 
historical  change  has  been  primarily  economic. 
Indeed,  by  using  the  word  "motive"  I  weaken 
the  necessitarian  character  of  the  materialist 
theory.  For,  strictly  speaking,  motive  is  alien 
to  it.  It  works  mechanically.  The  expression 
"economic  determinism"  conveys  the  idea  more 
accurately.  This  theory,  which  was  held  by 
the  fathers  of  modern  Socialism,  is  a  charac- 
teristic production  of  the  thought  of  the  middle 


V 


WHAT  SOCIALISM  IS  NOT         143 

of  the  nineteenth  century.  The  influence  of 
physical  conditions  upon  human  action  was 
then  a  plaything  of  the  intellectuals,  and  the  toy 
was  handled  with  the  most  whole-hearted  affec- 
tion by  Buckle  in  his  History  of  Civilization; 
but  Buckle  was  an  individualist  of  the  most 
rigid  kind,  so  the  theory  itself  is  not  of  neces- 
sity Socialist.  It  was  a  revolt — an  exaggera- 
tion of  a  new  and  attractive  explanation  of 
historical  evolution.  It  drew  history  away  from 
the  dimly  understood  realms  of  the  spirit  and 
of  destiny  which  really  belonged  to  revealed 
religion,  and  from  explanations  of  the  vaguest 
kind,  and  made  it  a  deduction  from  climate, 
from  soil,'  from  geography,  from  geology  and 
above  all,  from  personal  and  class  interest. 
The  theory  was  so  very  simple,  so  very  sweep- 
ing and  comprehensive,  explained  so  much,  and 
was  so  very  new,  that  the  Socialist  was  bound 
to  adopt  it  because  the  existing  order  which 
produced  the  very  ugly  social  features  of  which 
he  was  the  sworn  enemy  was  generally  defended 
on  theological  and  metaphysical  grounds,  or 
was  presented  as  the  fruit  of  the  work  of  great 
men,  with  the  result  that  it  seemed  to  be  out- 
side the  realm  of  reason  altogether  and  not 
subject  to  a  law  of  evolution.  Suddenly  a  new 
scientific  idea  exploded  the  whole  of  this,  as 
Guy  Fawkes  proposed  to  explode  James  I  and 
his  Parliament.  History  became  a  record  of 
social  evolution;  society  had  an  orderly  process 
of  change  as  well  as  man  or  a  grain  of  sand. 
Kings  and  nobles  were  functionaries;  reigns 
were  mere  commas  in  the  story — sometimes  not 
even    so    much — and    not    the    beginnings    and 


144      THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

endings  of  paragraphs  and  chapters.  One  epoch 
produced  the  next,  the  explanation  being  that 
economic  adjustments  were  taking  place,  and 
that  these  adjustments  were  constantly  mar- 
shalling and  re-marshalling  the  armies  of  re- 
action and  progress,  which  for  ever  were  coming 
into  conflict  with  each  other  and  changing 
the  balance  of  power  within  nations  and 
also  the  methods  by  which  that  power  was 
used  and  expressed.  To  no  active  propa- 
ganda of  the  time  did  the  secularisation  of 
historical  theory  yield  more  immediate  or  more 
abundant  fruit  than  it  did  to  the  propaganda 
of  Socialism. 

Hut  the  materialist  conception  of  history  is 
after  all  one-sided  and  inadequate.  The  ser- 
vice it  rendered  was  the  establishment  of  the 
Bcience  of  history  by  the  setting  up  of  a  de- 
ductive method  as  well  as  an  inductive  one. 
Having  rendered  that  service  the  toy  began  to 
show  signs  of  wear.  It  did  not  satisfy  every 
need.  It  did  not  meet  every  emergency.  Its 
assumptions  can  never  be  displaced  from  the 
motives  in  history,  but  they  cannot  explain 
events  when  considered  absolutely  and  alone. 
The  progress  of  man  is  not  solely  inspired  by 
his  pocket,  nor  by  the  soil  upon  which  he  lives, 
although  these  things  must  always  be  factors. 
The  hill  tribe  must  have  different  characteris- 
tics from  the  plain  tribe.  The  exploited  people 
must  come  into  frequent  conflict  with  their 
exploiters.  A  wealthy  class  of  disfranchised 
people  must  knock  at  the  gates  of  citizenship 
demanding  admission.  But  in  these  conflicts 
every    human    quality    must   have   been    awak- 


WHAT  SOCIALIST  IS  NOT         145 

ened  and  must  act  as  allies.  Moreover,  looking 
into  the  future,  as  true  education  spreads  and 
comfort  becomes  more  real,  the  more  materi- 
alist motives  are  bound  to  diminish  in  their 
importance  jn  relation  to  the  intellectual  and 
moral  ones.  If  self-respect  were  a  wide-spread 
virtue  in  England  to-day,  the  conflict  of  the 
House  of  Lords  with  the  House  of  Commons 
would  be  much  more  disastrous  to  the  former 
than  it  will  be  if  the  economic  interests  involved 
are  the  only  incentives  to  the  contest.  It  is 
the  mind  of  man,  with  its  ideals,  its  sense  of 
right  and  wrong,  and  its  aspirations  which 
makes  economic  poverty  and  injustice  a  serious 
grievance  and  gives  them  that  explosiveness 
which  makes  them  a  cause  of  revolution.  We 
now  see  all  this,  and  in  marshalling  the  motives 
which  make  for  change,  and  which  accom- 
plished what  change  has  hitherto  taken  place, 
we  give  due  place  to  those  that  are  intellec- 
tual, as  well  as  those  that  are  materialist  and 
economic. 

The  materialist  conception  of  history  is, 
therefore,  in  no  way  essential  to  the  Socialist 
theory.  It  undoubtedly  was  of  enormous  ser- 
vice to  that  theory  about  the  middle  of  last 
century,  but  its  service  to  Socialism  was  of 
precisely  the  same  nature  as  its  service  to  the 
science  of  history.  The  Socialist  theory  de- 
pends upon  a  conception  of  history  which  shows 
the  gradual  evolution  of  event,  of  epoch,  of 
organisation;  it  does  not  depend  upon  any  one 
explanation  of  why  history  does  present  that 
orderly  progress. 

Indeed,    that    is    conclusively    shown    in    the 


H6      THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

writings  of  Marx  and  Engels  themselves.  When 
the  opponents  of  Socialism  seek  to  raise  preju- 
dice in  their  favour  by  quotations  from  these 
writers  which  smack  of  economic  determinism, 
they  glean  their  extracts  from  the  earlier  state- 
ments of  the  theory  written  when,  as  Engels 
afterwards  explained,  "there  was  not  always 
time,  place  and  opportunities  to  do  justice  to 
the  other  considerations  concerned  in  and  affected 
by  it,"  (the  economic  factor).1  All  that  either 
.Marx  or  Engels  (Marx  putting  more  emphasis 
on  the  economic  factor  than  Engels,  perhaps) 
meant  to  argue  for  was  that  the  economic  factor 
waa  the  prime  moving  cause.  The  other  causes 
could  not  operate  without  it;  it  awakened 
them  into  activity.  I  may  use  the  words  of 
Engels  himself  written  to  the  magazine  from 
which  I  have  already  quoted:  'The  political, 
legal,  philosophical,  religious,  literary,  artistic- 
evolution  rests  on  the  economic  evolution.  But 
they  all  react  on  one  another  and  on  the  eco- 
nomic basis."  Thus,  at  best,  the  problem 
resolves  itself  into  the  relative  value  of  the 
various  creative  forces,  and,  at  worst,  into 
a  vain  contention  similar  to  that  as  to  whether 
the  egg  or  the  hen  is  first  in  creation. 

When  the  theory  was  new,  it  had  to  chal- 
lenge in  a  most  aggressive  way  those  that  held 
the  field.  It  had  to  be  couched  in  dogmas  of 
sharp  cutting  hardness.  That  is  the  history 
of  most  theories.  They  claim  absolute  validity 
at  first  and  are  satisfied  in  the  end  by  a  rec- 
ognition of  the  fact  that  they  are  of  relative 
importance.  * 

1  Letter  in  the  Sozialistischen  Akademiker,  October,  1895. 


WHAT  SOCIALISM  IS  NOT         147 


6.  Class  War. 

Another  inheritance  from  the  imperfect  views 
which  had  \o  guide  the  early  Socialists  is  the 
theory  of  the  class  war.  Here  again,  the  super- 
ficial statement  is  one  of  facts  of  which  we 
have  illustrations  every  day.  Wage-earners  com- 
bine in  trade  unions.  Employers  combine  in 
federations.  Strikes  and  lockouts  are  declared. 
Trouble  arises  about  wages,  hours,  exploitation, 
and  so  on.  In  politics  the  rich  tend  to  drift 
together,  and  the  active  and  intelligent  poor 
tend  to  drift  together.  A  temperance  bill 
finds  "the  trade"  organised  to  a  man.  A  land 
tax  finds  the  landowners  and  property-holders 
in  general  ready  to  defend  all  their  incomes, 
and  to  announce  that  if  they  are  attacked, 
the  whole  of  the  social  fabric  is  threatened. 
This  is  nothing  but  a  class  war  so  far  as  it 
goes. 

The  Socialist,  however,  has  to  consider  what 
is  the  value  of  these  facts  for  his  propaganda 
and  for  the  realisation  of  his  ideal  state.  What 
do  they  mean  and  how  much  do  they  mean? 
One  thing  is  quite  evident.  The  existence  of 
a  class  struggle  is  of  no  importance  to  Socialism 
unless  it  rouses  intellectual  and  moral  antago- 
nism, for  it  is  only  that  antagonism  which  leads 
to  progreassive  chnge.  And  this  explains  best 
why  the  Socialist  condemns  this  struggle  which 
has  become  repulsive  because  it  creates  con- 
ditions of  injustice,  because  it  results  in  chaos 
and  because  it  defeats  the  realisation  of  the 
ideal  state  of  peace  and  comfort  which  the  lead- 


148      THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

ing  spirits  of  mankind  have  always  placed  before 
them  as  a  goal.  The  motive  force  of  Socialism 
is  therefore  not  the  struggle,  but  the  condem- 
nation of  the  struggle  by  the  creative  imagi- 
native intelligence  and  by  the  moral  sense. 
The  conflict  is  an  incident  in  an  evolution  towards 
complete  social  harmony,  and  the  motive  for 
the  evolution  is  not  economic  but  intellectual 
and  moral.  The  Socialist,  therefore,  cannot 
consistently  address  himself  to  class  sentiment 
or  class  prejudice.  He  ought,  indeed,  to  look 
away  from  it,  because  any  victory  won  as  the 
result  of  siding  with  one  party  in  the  struggle 
only  perpetuates  what  he  desires  to  eliminate. 
The  appeal  to  class  interest  is  an  appeal  to 
the  existing  order,  whether  the  class  addressed 
is  the  rich  or  the  poor.  It  is  the  anti-Socialist 
who  makes  class  appeals;  the  Socialist  makes 
social  appeals.  Class  consciousness  is  an  asset 
of  the  defenders  of  the  existing  order  of  exploi- 
tation. It  is  evident  in  the  wide  social  gulf 
fixed  between  Liberals  and  Conservatives,  it  is 
behind  the  boycott  of  Liberal  shopkeepers  by 
Primrose  dames,  it  is  the  reason  for  the  advice 
given  through  The  Times  at  the  end  of  1910 
to  society  hostesses  to  send  no  invitations  to 
Liberal  ministers. 

The  class  war  found  its  way  into  the  gen- 
eral body  of  Socialist  dogma  quite  simply. 
Marx  saw  that  no  proletarian  movement  could 
be  created  in  Europe  without  some  passion. 
The  wage-earners  had  to  feel  the  enemy.  They 
had  to  be  marshalled  as  a  class.  The  theory 
of  economic  determinism  in  history  was  a  theory 
of   a   war   of    classes.     By    a   conflict    between 


V 


WHAT  SOCIALISM  IS  NOT         149 

economic  classes  progress  had  come.  Economic 
determinism,  therefore,  not  only  laid  a  scien- 
tific basis  for  Socialism,  but  also  provided  it 
with  a  method.  But  as  the  determinist  argu- 
ment was  modified,  the  class  war  view  had  to 
suffer  a  corresponding  modification.  When  the 
doctrine  of  economic  determinism  was  preached 
in  its  absoluteness,  the  class  war  in  all  its  naked 
antagonism  was  a  logical  corollary;  when  other 
than  economic  factors  form  the  evolutionary 
drift  of  society,  other  motives  than  those  of 
class  interest  must  form  the  political  parties 
that  are  consciously  aiding  the  Socialist  evolu- 
tion. When  Engels  wrote  the  apologetic  con- 
fession which  I  have  just  quoted,  he  also  threw 
the  class  war  as  it  had  been  understood  up  to 
then  out  of  the  armoury  of  Socialist  arguments. 
The  idea  of  the  class  war  no  longer  represents 
the  motive  forces  organising  Socialism  and 
forming  the  Socialist  movement.  Those  who 
still  use  it  are  like  those  more  backward  re- 
ligious communities  which  express  their  theolo- 
gies in  the  terms  used  before  there  was  a  science 
of  geology. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE    IMMEDIATE    DEMANDS   OF   SOCIALISM 

1.  Democracy. 

Bearing  in  mind  that  the  watchword  of 
Socialism  is  Evolution,  not  Revolution,  and 
that  its  battlefield  La  Parliament,  its  immediate 
programme  becomes  of  the  utmost  importance. 
In  this  programme,  as  in  the  Socialist  theory 
itself,  there  are  to  be  found  some  interesting 
survivals  of  a  historic  past.  The  revolutionary 
republicanism  of  1848  can  be  traced  both  in 
proposals  to  abolish  the  monarchy  and  to  repu- 
diate the  National  Debt  which  one  meets  with 
iu  some  programmes  which  seem  to  have  been 
kept  as  sacred  from  the  touch  of  change 
as  some  rooms  in  ancient  places  where  the 
Merry  Monarch  slept  or  the  Young  Pretender 
hastily  laid  his  head.  In  democratically  gov- 
erned countries  where  Socialism  has  had  to 
take  its  place  in  the  political  conflict  of  actuali- 
ties not  only  have  these  antiquities  been  left 
behind  amongst  the  discarded  baggage,  but 
they  hardly  influence  Socialist  thought.  The 
virtues  of  republicanism  and  the  conveniences 
of  a  monarchy  are  subjects  of  abstract  interest 
which  may  ruffle  for  an  hour  the  surface  of 
debating    societies,    but    in    this    country    and 

150 


DEMANDS  OF  SOCIALISM         151 

under  present  circumstances,  they  do  not  cause 
a  ripple  in  Parliamentary  controversy  or  take 
up  a  line  in  Parliamentary  programmes.  One 
can  conceive  of  a  time  when  a  foolish  monarch 
and  foolish  court  advisers  might  make  the 
question  a  practical  one  by  interfering  in  poli- 
tics as  the  House  of  Lords  recently  did  when 
it  rejected  a  Budget.  In  such  a  case,  the  So- 
cialist movement  would  be  bound  to  stand  for 
democratic  control,  and  it  would  strive  for  root 
and  branch  changes.  But  from  the  purely 
practical  point  of  view,  Socialism,  as  is  shown 
by  the  writings  of  many  of  its  most  distinguished 
exponents,  of  whom  I  may  mention  Lassalle, 
does  not  consider  republicanism  of  essential 
importance.  Theoretically  it  would  say  that  a 
republic  is  a  more  intellectually  defensible  sys- 
tem of  government  than  any  other,  and  there 
it  would  leave  the  matter  for  the  folly  of  other 
people  to  make  it  of  practical  moment. 

Socialism  declares  for  the  sovereignty  being 
in  the  hands  of  the  people;  it  is  opposed  to 
property  being  the  qualification  for  voting;  it 
rejects  all  fancy  franchises  and  all  fancy  checks, 
not  one  of  which,  according  to  the  experience 
of  the  world,  has  ever  worked;  it  bases  the  right 
to  vote  on  the  experience  that  men  have  had 
living  under  the  state  which  they  control;  it 
therefore  stands  for  the  widest  possible  suffrage. 
Nor  does  it  consider  that  men  alone  should 
vote.  So  soon  as  the  state  begins  to  act  closely 
with  the  individual  and  to  concern  itself  with 
wages,  labour  conditions,  public  morals,  chil- 
dren, the  experience  of  women  must  guide  it 
as  much  as  the  experience  of  men.     A  mascu- 


152      THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

line  state  can  never  fulfil  the  functions  of  a 
Socialist  state. 

At  a  time  when  the  common  people  as  elec- 
tors were  suspected  and,  if  tolerated,  certainly 
not  welcomed,  caution  spun  out  fine  theories 
about  checks  and  counter-balances.  There  was 
to  be  some  authority  in  the  constitution,  wise 
and  impartial,  conservative  but  not  opposed  to 
change,  a  break  but  not  a  spoke  in  the  wheel, 
and  it  was  to  protect  the  nation  from  revolu- 
tion and  spoliation,  from  demagogues  and 
scratch  majorities.  This  authority  was  to  con- 
sist of  representatives  of  a  section  of  the  com- 
munity and  was  either  to  be  recruited  by  birth, 
or  by  people  chosen  from  property  voters,  or 
from  large  constituencies  which  could  be  fought 
only  by  those  possessed  of  much  means.  Later 
on,  this  theory  was  supplemented  by  another. 
The  lower  house  was  not  always  truly  repre- 
sentative. It  was  elected  on  complicated  issues, 
its  constituencies  were  of  unequal  sizes,  by  the 
efflux  of  time  it  drifted  away  from  its  mandates. 
Some  authority  had  to  be  created  which  would 
judge  when  the  democratic  house  was  acting 
Bfl  a  representative,  and  when  as  an  autocratic, 
body. 

The  politics  of  Socialism  have  been  con- 
structed on  a  different  plan.  They  offer  no 
abject  allegiance  to  representative  government 
though  they  assume  that  in  every  state  of  con- 
siderable area  and  population  the  representative 
must  be  the  legislator.  The  representative, 
however,  needs  to  be  checked,  but  the  Socialist 
proposes  to  do  that  by  the  people  themselves 
and  not  by  a  particular  section  of  the  people. 


DEMANDS  OF  SOCIALISM         153 

Hence,  the  referendum  and  proportional  repre- 
sentation present  themselves  to  the  Socialist  in 
alluring  garments,  and  undoubtedly  in  countries 
suffering  from  corrupt  legislators  and  from  gross 
injustice  from  an  inequality  of  constituencies, 
these  proposals  may  be  entitled  to  the  term 
"  reforms."  In  our  country,  however,  that  name 
cannot  be  given  to  them.  The  former  is  but 
a  clumsy  and  ineffective  weapon  which  the 
reaction  can  always  use  more  effectively  than 
the  democracy,  because  it,  being  only  the  power 
to  say  "No,"  is  far  more  useful  to  the  few  than 
to  the  many,  and  that  will  be  more  and  more 
the  case  as  the  many  become  enlightened.  The 
other  adds  greatly  to  the  expense  of  elections, 
offers  increased  opportunities  for  the  manipu- 
lating caucus  managers,  makes  majorities  and 
governments  more  dependent  upon  stray  odd 
men  in  the  legislature,  and  returns  to  Parlia- 
ment a  greater  number  of  men  than  are  there 
now  whose  votes  represent  no  opinion  and  carry 
out  no  mandate,  because  so  many  will  be  re- 
turned on  single  issues — e.  g.  Temperance — but 
will  have  to  vote  on  every  question  that  comes 
before  Parliament.  The  Socialist  knows  that 
democracy  in  government  can  be  secured  only 
bp  an  efficiently  working  machine  and  not  by 
an  elaborate  set  of  paper  perfections  of  beautiful 
but  intangible  delicacy. 

Shorter  parliaments,  payment  of  members, 
adult  suffrage,  is  the  Socialist  machinery  of 
democracy,  whilst  for  further  checks  and  safe- 
guards resource  can  be  had  to  one  thing  and 
one  thing  only,  a  higher  political  intelligence 
on  the  part  of  the  majority  of  the  electors. 


154      THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 


2.  Palliatives. 

From  the  Socialist  standpoint,  Democracy  is 
both  an  end  in  itself  and  a  means  to  other  ends, 
for,  whilst  the  Socialist  regards  the  Democratic 
state  as  the  proof  and  pledge  of  completed 
citizenship,  he  regards  political  power  as  the 
means  of  social  reconstruction  and  betterment. 
He  therefore  supplements  his  political  pro- 
gramme by  a  social  one,  and  this  consists  of 
two  main  sections.  He  proposes  a  series  of 
measures  to  mitigate  present  conditions,  and 
another  series  as  the  first  gatherings  in  of  rip- 
ened Socialist  opinion. 

In  the  first  section  are  proposals  dealing  with 
factory  and  mine  regulation  and  inspection,  the 
feeding  of  school  children,  old  age  pensions. 
Some  of  these  he  defends  on  principle,  and  they 
will  be  carried  on  into  the  Socialist  state.  Fac- 
tories will  be  inspected  to  reduce  accident  risks 
under  Socialism  just  as  under  commercialism, 
under  Socialism  injured  workmen  will  be  com- 
pensated, and  workmen  temporarily  displaced 
or  idle  from  no  fault  of  their  own  will  be  insured 
against  loss  when  Socialism  has  come  in  its 
fulness.  The  casualties  and  other  accidents 
which  beset  the  path  of  the  workman  are  a 
fair  charge  upon  industry.  They  are  as  much 
legitimate  costs  upon  production  as  are  the 
mending  and  renewal  of  machinery.  Any  other 
view  is  unthinkable  to  the  Socialist.  Industry 
must  be  carried  on  and  its  breakdowns  must 
be  provided  for,  and  surely  there  is  no  more 
pressing — though    to-day    no    more    neglected — 


DEMANDS  OF  SOCIALISM         155 

responsibility  lying  at  its  door  than  the  proper 
care  of  the  men  and  women  who  are  the  victims 
of  its  uncertainties  and  its  dangers.  The  whole 
of  this  part  of  the  Socialist  programme,  there- 
fore, is  aimed  at  securing  that  the  human  fac- 
tors in  industry  are  as  carefully  tended,  and  as 
jealously  kept  from  deteriorating  as  machines 
and  factory  walls  are  now.  When  the  com- 
munity owns  the  machines  it  will  not  regard 
them  as  of  greater  value  than  the  people  who 
work  them,  for  it  will  be  as  interested  in  human 
efficiency  as  capitalists  are  now  interested  in 
mechanical  efficiency. 

A  part  of  this  programme,  however,  will  be 
dropped  when  Socialism  is  attained.  It  is 
purely  protective  against  conditions  which  the 
Socialist  is  determined  to  remove.  The  feeding 
of  needy  children  is  a  case  in  point.  Under 
Socialism,  family  income  will  be  equal  to  family 
requirements.  It  is  far  short  of  that  to-day, 
and  therefore  if  children  are  to  be  nourished, 
if  they  are  to  be  kept  out  of  the  gutter,  if  they 
are  to  have  the  moral  as  well  as  the  physical 
pleasure  of  a  good  meal  served  under  proper 
conditions,  the  state  must  step  in  and  do  what 
the  parents  cannot  now  do.  There  is  the  grav- 
est risk  attending  this  kind  of  legislation,  and 
only  the  most  dire  necessity  can  justify  it. 
But  when  one  sees  the  prodigal  waste  of  child 
life,  the  reckless  lowering  of  mental  standards 
and  physical  fitness,  the  criminal  destruction  of 
good  taste  and  manners  which  shadow  our 
present  failure  to  keep  the  family  intact,  one 
has  to  recognise  that  steps  must  be  taken  imme- 
diately   to    stop    this    deterioration    whilst    its 


lo6      THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

cause  is  being  dealt  with  by  action  which  takes 
longer  to  complete  and  which  produces  results 
in  a  provokingly  slow  way. 

Some  of  the  critics  of  Socialism  seem  to  assume 
that  So  ilists  alone  commit  themselves  to  this 
kind  of  ;;clion.  But  that  is  not.  so.  All  other 
parties  do  the  same  kind  of  thing.  The  So- 
cialist, however,  never  Loses  sight  of  the  com- 
pleted work  and  it-  results.  For  instance,  some 
people  tell  us  that,  we  inn^t  have  religious  edu- 
cation taught  with  the  multiplication  table  and 
Latin  in  our  school-,  as  if  such  education  could 
be  of  the  least  value  to  any  one.  Their  excuse 
i>  that  if  it  is  not  taught  there  it  will  be  taught. 
nowhere  else.  The  Socialist  knows,  however, 
that  it  cannot  be  taught  there  at  all,  and  that 
the  attempt  to  substitute  the  schoolmaster  for 
the  mother,  and  the  school  desk  for  the  fireside, 
is  fatal  to  both  religion  and  the  child.  So  with 
divorce.  As  I  am  writing  this  book,  a  committee 
of  worthy  persons  is  sitting  considering  with 
the  help  of  ■  great  variety  <>f  witnesses  whether 
the  curse  of  unhappy  wedded  life  can  be  miti- 
gated by  the  other  curse  of  easy  divorce.  The 
Socialist  is  like  a  man  in  a  tangled  wood,  having 
to  turn  now  to  the  right,  now  to  the  left,  and 
even  occasionally  to  turn  back  upon  his  steps, 
but  guided  all  the  time  by  a  compass  and  a 
general  map  of  the  country  he  is  traversing. 
The  others  are  like  the  same  man  similarly 
beset,  but  without  compass  or  map. 


DEMANDS  OF  SOCIALISM         157 


3.  Constructive  Legislation. 

Finally,  there  is  the  constructive  section  of 
the  programme — the  section  which  lays  the 
rounds  of  well -trimmed  and  prepared  stones 
on  the  permanent  Socialist  fabric.  Municipal- 
tsation  and  nationalisation  in  every  shape  and 
form,  from  milk  supplies  to  telephones,  are 
included  in  this  section.  But  even  here,  the 
reader  must  be  warned,  the  full  intention  of 
Socialism  cannot  yet  be  carried  out.  State 
capitalism  is  no  more  Socialism  than  is  peasant 
proprietorship  secured  by  public  credit  land 
nationalisation.  The  state  can  be  as  bad  an 
employer  a^  any  joint  stock  company.  It  can 
exploit  one  class  of  users  and  consumers  to  bene- 
fit the  class  of  tax  and  rate  payers,  just  as  effec- 
tively and  objectionably  as  a  limited  liability 
company  can  exploit  consumers  to  put  profits 
in  the  pockets  of  its  shareholders.  The  Social- 
ist therefore  constantly  strives  to  make  the 
state  a  model  employer,  to  get  it  to  work  co- 
operatively with  its  employees,  and  associate 
the  latter  with  its  management;  and  as  a  corol- 
lary to  this  he  tries  to  make  the  state  as  a  cus- 
tomer of  the  private  employer  patronise  only 
those  firms  which,  as  far  as  is  possbile  to-day, 
do  their  duty  fairly  by  their  workpeople.  That 
is  why  municipally  and  nationally  Socialism 
has  been  as  closely  associated  with  the  demands 
for  the  insertion  in  public  contracts  of  clauses 
providing  for  fair  wages  and  conditions  of  labour 
as  with  demands  for  public  ownership.  Who- 
ever desires  to  understand  the  purport  of  So- 


158      THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

cialism  must  not  dissociate  these  two  forms  of 
Socialist  activity. 

But  there  is  another  highway  to  Socialism 
along  which  we  arc  treading.  The  facilities 
which  the  present  system  of  property  owning 
gives  to  certain  individuals  to  exploit  the  public 
must  be  the  subject  of  legislation.  The  need 
for  an  ever-increasing  public  income  makes  this 
a  pressing  question  for  all  parties,  and  the 
Socialist's  system  of  economic  justice  and  effi- 
ciency makes  it  a  peculiarly  important  one  for 
him.  No  section  of  the  Socialist  programme 
will  repay  careful  study  so  much  as  that  which 
deals  with  finance.  By  opponents  it  is  de- 
scribed as  confiscation,  by  himself  it  is  regarded 
as  the  means  of  stopping  confiscation;  they 
regard  it  as  a  method  of  impoverishment,  he 
as  a  means  of  enrichment;  they  think  of  it 
as  raids  upon  private  property,  he  defends  it 
as  a  way  to  secure  private  property.  The  dif- 
ference dividing  the  two  lies  in  the  fact  that 
they  assume  that  whatever  is  held,  is  justly 
held;  he  contends  that  there  ought  to  be  some 
title  in  moral  right  to  all  property.  Arising  out 
of  this  challenge  to  produce  a  good  title,  the 
Socialist  classifies  incomes  into  earned  and 
unearned.  The  division  is  rough,  but  no  rougher 
than  the  division  of  life  into  animal  and  vege- 
table, and  it  is  sufficiently  accurate  to  bear 
practical  application.  With  that  idea  in  mind, 
the  Socialist  starts  upon  his  financial  programme 
making. 

The  type  of  unearned  income  is  rent.1     The 

1  Some  of  our  critics  keep  dinning  it  into  our  ears  that 
rent   often   includes  interest   when  landowners  have  spent 


DEMANDS  OF  SOCIALISM         159 

Socialist  therefore  proposes  to  tax  it,  and  when 
he  is  told  that  by  doing  so  he  is  differentiat- 
ing one  kind  of  property  from  another,  he 
replies  that  it  is  so,  the  reason  being  that  land 
is  differentiated  from  every  other  kind  of  prop- 
erty by  its"  own  nature.  The  aim  of  this  tax 
is  to  secure  the  economic  rent  for  the  state, 
because  it  is  the  state  that  creates  the  value 
which  economic  rent  represents.  When  the 
tax  upon  economic  rent  becomes  substantial, 
the  monopoly  character  of  land  will  be  de- 
stroyed, and  it  will  be  free  for  more  general 
use  than  at  present.  Large  estates  will  be 
broken  up  and  more  people  will  live  upon  the 
soil. 

Two  problems  will  face  the  state  in  the  transi- 
tion stage.  It  must  remember  that  economic 
rent  has  become  private  property  with  the 
state's  consent,  and  it  therefore  must  agree 
that  it  has  obligations  to  the  owners.  It  must 
also  guard  against  the  multiplication  of  owners, 
because  the  creation  of  small  holdings  from  big 
estates  will  increase  economic  rent,  and  will 
therefore  increase  the  difficulties  of  the  state 
in  securing  that  rent  if  the  class  interested  in 
exploitation  by  rent  becomes  larger. 

But  there  are  unearned  incomes  drawn  from 
other  sources  than  from  rents.  In  time  these 
sources  may  be  classified  and  scales  of  taxation 
arranged  to  suit  them.  But  for  the  time  being 
that  is  unnecessary  because,  roughly,  we  can 
take  it  for  granted  that  large  incomes  are  less 

capital  in  developing  their  lands.  The  Socialist,  however, 
does  not  forget  that  at  all,  and  when  he  theorises  about 
rent,  he  means  real  rent,  and  not  rent  plus  interest. 


160      THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

and  less  earned  in  their  final  increments,  so 
that  a  scheme  of  graduated  income-tax  may  be 
assumed  to  trap  those  portions  of  national 
income  which  illegitimately  find  their  way  into 
private  pockets. 

The  effect  of  this  system  of  finance  is  three- 
fold. It  will  tap  sources  of  national  income 
which  will  yield  ever-swelling  volumes  of  supply; 
it  will  destroy  the  value  of  monopolies  to  indi- 
vidual owners  and  thus  stop  existing  opportu- 
nities of  exploitation;  it  will  lighten  the  bur- 
dens borne  by  industrial  capital  and  thus  enable 
trade  to  expand  and  prices  to  fall.  The  cost 
of  government  will  be  borne  mainly  by  public 
income  and  not  by  taxes  paid  from  private 
income,  so  that  industry  will  not  feel  it,  .and 
proceeding  along  with  this  will  be  a  steady 
extension  of  municipalisation  and  nationalisa- 
tion made  practical  by  the  destruction  of  mo- 
nopoly and  by  the  expansiveness  of  national 
financial  resources. 

Only  one  incident  in  this  transition  need  be 
discussed  specially.  The  Socialist  denies  that 
he  proposes  a  policy  of  confiscation.  Is  he  not, 
however,  to  confiscate  as  a  matter  of  fact? 
The  state  did  not  confiscate  when  the  tele- 
graphs were  nationalised,  nor  does  it  propose 
to  confiscate  the  telephone  service  in  a  few 
months  from  now.  Switzerland  did  not  con- 
fiscate the  railways  when  it  nationalised  them. 
Neither  Glasgow  nor  London  confiscated  their 
trams  when  they  municipalised  them.  If  there 
has  been  a  shadow  of  confiscation  in  any  of 
these  transfers  the  taxpayers  and  ratepayers 
were  the  victims,  not  the  shareholders. 


DEMANDS  OF  SOCIALISM         161 

I  shall  show  presently  that  Socialism  cannot 
come  by  confiscation,  but  before  doing  so  I 
desire  to  point  out  that,  if  it  could,  the  eco- 
nomic history  of  the  past  would  be  very  awk- 
ward for  'those  who  might  complain.  The 
expropriation  of  the  monasteries  upon  which 
were  founded  the  fortunes  of  some  of  our  most 
respectable  families,  the  wholesale  enclosure  of 
commons  and  public  lands,  the  brutal  compe- 
tition, which  was  really  not  competition  at  all 
but  industrial  murder,  by  which  the  fortunes 
of  some  of  our  trust  magnates  have  been  se- 
cured, form  an  awkward  record  for  the  classes 
moralising  about  expropriation.  And  if  it  be 
argued,  as  it  generally  is,  that  these  things 
were  done  only  that  lands  might  be  used  for 
the  national  good  and  that  economic  resources 
might  not  go  to  waste,  the  Socialist's  answer 
is  both  swift  and  decisive.  That  is  just  his 
aim  and  his  justification.  What  is  done  in  the 
green  tree  can  surely  be  done  in  the  dry.  But 
history,  though  an  awkward  record  of  preda- 
tory acts  for  some  classes,  is  a  bad  precedent 
in  this  respect  for  Socialists. 

The  interests  of  classes  are  so  mixed  up,  the 
generous  sentiments  of  the  masses  are  so  strong, 
the  sanction  which  the  community  has  given 
to  its  own  exploitation  has  been  so  definite, 
that  it  would  not  be  politic,  and  it  certainly 
would  not  be  just,  to  pursue  any  policy  of  con- 
fiscation. Socialists  have  not  proposed  to  do 
bo.  "We  do  not  consider,"  wrote  Engels  in 
1894. l    "the   indemnification   of   the   owners   as 

1  Quoted   by   Vandervelde   in   Collectivism   and  Industrial 
Evolution,  p.  186. 


162      THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

an  impossibility,  whatever  be  the  circumstances. 
How  many  times  has  not  Karl  Marx  expressed 
to  me  the  opinion  that  if  we  could  buy  up  the 
whole  gang,  it  would  even  be  the  means  of 
getting  rid  of  them  most  cheaply." 

The  substitution  of  public  for  private  owner- 
ship will  not  come  in  a  day,  nor  will  it  affect 
everything  at  once.  That  is  tantamount  to 
saying  that  it  will  come  in  different  ways. 
Railways  have  been  purchased,  rival  milk  sup- 
plies have  been  provided  as  new  businesses, 
proposals  have  been  made  to  take  land  for 
use  and  regard  the  landowners  as  dowagers.1 
Thus  we  have  already  experienced  purchase, 
competition,  expropriation  with  guarantee  of  in- 
come (and  if  we  add  the  case  of  the  Suez  Canal, 
the  acquiring  of  national  interests  in  under- 
takings) as  steps  to  public  ownership,  and  as 
time  goes  on  other  methods  appropriate  to 
circumstances  will  be  adopted.  When  the  state 
is  in  a  better  position  than  it  is  now  to  absorb 
industry,  it  will  extend  the  principle  of  the 
Development  Commission  and  the  Congested 
Districts  Boards  of  Ireland  and  Scotland,  and 
these  Boards  will  then  act  for  the  development 
of  state  enterprise,  and  not  merely  to  spur  on, 
to  enlighten  and  to  guide  private  enterprise. 
In  fact,  upon  this,  which  may  be  granted  to 
be  the  most  difficult  part  of  the  Socialist  evo- 
lution to  forecast  with  any  certainty,  numerous 
public  activities  are  beginning  to  throw  a  light. 
What  is  quite  certain  is  that  the  state  will  adopt 
different  methods  of  acquiring  control  of  indus- 

i  Scottish  Land  Bill. 


DEMANDS  OF  SOCIALISM  163 

trial  capital,  but  that  none  of  them — unless  a 
catastrophe  were  to  be  precipitated  by  the 
reaction — can  be  called  confiscation  with  any 
justice. 

4.  Right  to  Work. 

The  political  demands  of  Socialism  cannot  be 
understood  better  than  by  a  study  of  the  "Right 
to  Work."  The  demand  has  a  long  and  a  rich 
history  in  the  course  of  which  political  theory, 
Socialist  points  of  view,  and  historical  events 
would  have  to  be  reviewed.  Had  Anton  Menger 
lived,  he  might  have  written  that  history.  In 
a  short  section  of  a  book  like  this,  I  can  hardly 
do  justice  even  to  a  summary  of  it.  Curiously 
enough,  in  the  first  instance,  tlie  doctrine  was 
a  philosophic  tenet  of  the  eighteenth-century 
individualists — though  the  phrase  itself  appears 
to  have  been  used  first  of  all  by  Fourier,  when 
he  was  discussing  other  rights  than  the  political 
ones  which  were  proclaimed  during  the  Revo- 
lution. It  was  held  to  be  inseparable  from  in- 
dividuality. If  a  man  had  a  right  to  life,  the 
individualist  argument  ran,  the  state  had  to 
see  that  he  had  physical  sustenance.  If  he 
could  not  work  some  poor  law  organisation  had 
to  take  him  in  hand;  if  he  could  work  but  had 
no  opportunity  given  him  to  work,  under  any 
state  which  was  not  communist  that  right  of 
his  took  the  form  of  a  claim  upon  the  state 
to  find  something  for  him  to  do  by  which  to 
earn  an  income.  In  one  form  or  another  that 
received  the  support  of  Locke,  of  Montesquieu, 
of  Rousseau  and  the  whole  of  their  school. 


1G4      THE  SOCIALIST   MOVEMENT 

But  the  baffling  entanglements  in  which  com- 
mercialism enveloped  the  right,  led  to  the  indi- 
vidualists dropping  it.     It  became  ■  mere  dream 

to  them,  and  the  fact  that  the  Socialists  stuck 
to  it  is  only  one  of  many  proofs  which  show 
that,  so  far  from  being  an  ant  i-individualist 
philosophy.   Socialism   contains  all   the  essentials 

of  real  individualism.  It  eszrased  considerable 
influence  upon  Socialist  thought  in  the  'forties, 
and,   ai   every   one   knows,   the   Revolution  of 

lNl-s  led  to  the  founding  of  the  National  Work- 
shops of  Paris.      I   am  not   to  expose  the  already 

oft-exposed  error  of  attributing  the  failure  of 
these  workshops  to  Louis  Blanc  and  his  Social- 
ist friends.  It  is  true  that  the  Socialists  made 
the  opening  of  the  workshops  imperative,  l»ut 
the  Minister  responsible  for  them  deliberately 
designed  their  collapse  because  he  was  a  bitter 
opponent  of  Louis  Blanc.  Mr.  Kirkup.  one  of 
the  most  impartial  and  painstaking  of  inquirers, 

wrote:     "It    is   perfectly   clear   that    the   national 

workshops  were  simply  a  travesty  of  the  pro- 
posala  of  Louis   Blanc,  established  expressly  to 

discredit  them";1  and  it  was  regarding  the 
tales  spread  about  them  that  Lassalle  exclaimed: 
"Lying  is  a  Luropcan  power."  Louis  Blanc 
repudiated  them.  There  arc  some  events  in 
history  about  which  popular  opinion  comes  to 
a  conclusion,  wrong  as  wrong  can  he,  hut  the 
opinion  is  circulated,  is  reiterated,  is  persisted 
in  until  it  becomes  an  unquestioned  assump- 
tion, and  it  can  he  removed  after  that  only  by 
the  most  patient   and   laborious  campaign  of — 

1  History  of  Socialism,  pp.  48,  49. 


DEMANDS  OF  SOCIALISM         165 

telling  the  truth.  Such  an  event  is  the  failure 
of  the  National  Workshops  of  Paris.  The 
French  Socialist  movement  had  to  bow  to  the 
opposition  of  popular  ignorance  and  become 
silent  on  the  Right  to  Work  for  a  long  time. 
k  A  similar  untoward  fate  befell  it  in  Germany. 
The  Liberal  individualists  there  adopted  it  as 
a  cardinal  article  of  their  faith.  In  the  Prus- 
sian Civil  Code  of  the  6th  of  February,  1794, 
it  was  embodied,  but  in  administration  it  proved 
to  be  but  a  constitutional  provision  for  poor 
law  relief.  The  English  workhouse  and  stone- 
yard  were  what  the  Prussian  Liberals  meant 
when  they  recognised  the  Right  to  Work. 
Further,  when  Bismarck  was  piloting  his  anti- 
Socialist  legislation  through  the  Reichstag  in 
1884,  he  declared  that  a  recognition  of  the 
Right  to  Work  was  necessary  as  a  part  of  the 
programme  by  which  he  was  to  kill  the  menace 
of  Socialism  by  kindness.  The  Liberals  had 
then  abandoned  the  principles  of  individualism 
and  were  standing  by  those  of  wage  slavery, 
and  attacked  Bismarck  for  his  declaration. 
In  reply  to  their  leader.  Richter,  he  said  cate- 
gorically: "I  recognize  unconditionally  a  right 
to  labour."  Hence,  used  as  it  has  been  in 
Germany,  as  a  mere  poor  law  claim,  it  has  not 
only  disappeared  from  the  demands  of  the 
German  Social  Democrats,  but  has  been  op- 
posed by  them  at  International  Congresses. 

In  this  country,  however,  it  has  been  revived 
in  its  true  significance  and  is  put  forward  more 
frequently  than  any  single  demand  in  the  So- 
cialist programme. 

The  reasons  are  obvious,  and  a  narration  of 


16G      THE  SOCIALIST   MOVEMENT 

them  will  throw  further  light  upon  Socialist 
methods  and  purposes. 

The  Socialist  revives  the  classical  individu- 
alist claim  that  unless  a  man  can  find  the  means 
of  life  all  theories  about  his  liberty  are  but 
unreal  shadows,  ami  the  duty  imposed  upon 
him  to  preserve  his  life  cannot  be  borne  by  him. 
In  society  the  right  to  work  cannot  be  made 
effective  ezcepl  by  the  state.  A  man  cannot 
jn>  to  any  single  employer  and  say:  "I  demand 
employment";  but  he  may  justly  go  to  the 
state  and  -ay:  "I  have  tried  everything  I  can 
think  of  but  I  can  find  no  work.  I  present  my 
claim  either  to  be  put  to  work  or  to  receive 
subsistence."  That  is  the  foundation  of  the 
Righl  to  Work  Bill  for  which  the  British  Labour 
Party  is  responsible. 

The  subsistence  provision  can  be  secured  in 
one  of  two  ways.  It  may  be  provided  on  the 
communist  plan  of  allowing  the  unemployed 
man    to   share   in    the   national   wealth   by   giving 

him  grants  during  his  period  of  unemployment, 

but    that    is   nut   Socialism,   ami   the  So<i,ili>t   will 

not  willingly  adopt  that  proposal.  It  may  also 
be  provided  by  a  scheme  of  insurance,  the  pre- 
miums of  which  an-  provided  by  the  state,  the 

trade,  and  the  body  of  workmen.  That  is 
much  nearer  to  the  general  principles  of  Social- 
ism, and  in  that  form  this  part  of  the  Right  to 
Work  claim  is  now  being  advocated  and  en- 
forced by  the  Socialist  parties  of  the  world. 

The  other  part  of  the  claim  is,  however,  from 
the  point  of  view  of  Socialist  reconstruction 
more  important.  It  assumes  that  it  is  the 
duty  of  the  state  to  organise  labour.     The  first 


DEMANDS  OF  SOCIALISM         167 

step  in  this  is  the  establishment  of  the  Labour 
Exchange,  the  second  the  decasualisation  of 
labour  by  the  prohibition  of  the  engagement  of 
casual  workers  except  through  exchanges.  The 
effect  of  this  will  be  to  increase  the  number  of 
chronically  unemployed  men,  for  which  the 
state  must   assume  responsibility. 

The  state  with  this  responsibility  upon  its 
shoulders  must  turn  at  once  to  an  examination 
of  its  own  resources  to  see  how  they  can  be 
used  better  than  they  are.  For  it  is  obvious 
that  putting  these  unemployed  men  to  work 
in  industries  already  fully  manned  or  over- 
manned would  solve  nothing  and  perhaps  would 
increase  misery.  The  problem  which  the  Labour 
Party  desires  the  state  to  face  is  therefore  that 
of  the  development  of  its  unused  resources. 
We  must  be  quite  clear  upon  this  point,  because 
it  is  the  essential  part  of  the  Labour  Party's 
purpose.  Neither  relief  works  nor  the  National 
Workshops  of  1848  (except  for  training,  perhaps) 
are  asked  for,  but  a  policy  of  national  develop- 
ment. 

So  soon  as  this  policy  is  considered,  the  ques- 
tion of  the  land  will  inevitably  come  up,  and 
means  will  be  taken  to  put  it  to  better  use  than 
at  present.  The  Congested  Districts  Boards  of 
Ireland  and  the  Scottish  Highlands,  the  Devel- 
opment Commission  established  in  1910,  the 
land  legislation  of  Australia,  all  point  the  way 
to  the  statesman  who  will  have  the  foresight, 
the  courage  and  the  patriotism  to  handle  this 
question.  As  part  of  this  programme,  the 
Socialist  has  long  been  crying  for  afforestation, 
national  drainage  and  reclamation,  labour  farm 


168      THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

colonies  and  rural  housing  with  small  holdings, 
and  the  pressure  of  social  misery  and  depopu- 
lation has  at  length  come  to  his  aid.  Once 
more  he  has  proved  himself  pre-eminently 
entitled  to  that  adjective  "practical"  of  which 
his  opponents  appear  to  be  so  desirous  to  deprive 
him. 

He  is  anxious  to  secure  one  condition,  however, 
which  the  shortsighted  statesmen  who  adopt 
bis  proposals  when  circumstances  compel  them, 
do  not  see  to  be  necessary.  Every  activity  in 
this  direction,  the  Socialist  urges,  should  lea  1 
toward^  nationalisation.  The  public  ought  to 
retain  the  ownership  of  what  it  has  created. 
The  afforestation  encouraged  should  be  national 
and  municipal  afforestation,  the  reclaimed  land 
should  remain  national  property,  the  small 
holdings  should  not  be  freeholds  but  leaseholds 
with  the  necessary  security  of  tenure  for  those 
who  work  them.  This  is  not  only  required  so 
as  to  fit  in  with  the  general  plan  of  Socialist 
organisation,  but  in  order  to  produce  the  prac- 
tical result-  aimed  at.  I  need  only  instance 
the  Australian  experience  regarding  land.  Sev- 
eral States  broke  up  large  territorial  owner- 
ships and  granted  freeholds  to  smaller  culti- 
vators. In  a  very  short  time  failure  began  to 
be  written  over  the  experiment.  The  small 
holdings  were  sold  and  the  law  of  concentration 
set  to  work  to  defeat  the  shortsighted  schemes 
of  governments.  The  Governments  then  adopted 
the  Socialist  method  and  retained  the  freeholds 
in  their  own  hands.  The  result  came  almost 
instantaneously.  The  real  worker  settled  on 
the  land  because  he  was  not  burdened  at  the 


V 


DEMANDS  OF  SOCIALISM         169 

outset  by  purchase  capital,  the  small  holdings 
did  not  concentrate  into  large  ones,  the  people 
stayed  upon  the  soil.  The  policy  of  breaking 
up  the  large  estates  was  justified  and  the  sup- 
port of  public  funds  required  for  the  purpose 
really  resulted  in  an  increased  country  popu- 
lation. 

Thus,  worked  out  into  its  consequences  and 
translated  into  a  social  policy  and  programme, 
the  Right  to  Work  illustrates  in  a  definite  and 
practical  form  the  intention  and  meaning  of 
the  Socialist's  immediate  demands. 


CHAPTER  IX 

IN    THE    SOCIALIST    STATE 

Some  of  the  critics  of  Socialism  insist  that 
its  advocates  should  not  only  supply  every 
detail  i:i  its  working,  but  even  the  most  minute 
particulars  <>f  these  details.  There  is  a  certain 
ephemera]  controversial  advantage  in  this.  One 
of  Uk*  greatest  difficulties  which  the  propa- 
ganda of  Socialism  has  to  encounter  is  the  in- 
capacity of  people  to  imagine  any  different  state 
of  society  to  that  in  which  they  live.  A  new 
social  relationship,  a  new  combination  of  human 
motives,  a  new  mode  of  wealth  production,  is 
at  once  set  aside  as  something  beyond  their 
vision,  and  consequently  something  that  bears 
the  stamp  of  the  impractical.  Their  considera- 
tion of  Socialism  therefore  ends  where  it  began. 

The  Utopian  Socialist  had  to  produce  these 
details  because  his  New  Harmony  was  sup- 
posed to  work  straight  away  like  a  patented 
invention.  Also,  if  the  modern  Socialist  pro- 
posed to  adopt  revolution  as  the  means  to  his 
end,  he  would  require  to  produce  his  whole 
plan,  because  it  would  be  required  on  the  mor- 
row of  the  upheaval.  That,  however,  is  not 
Ins  method.  He  approaches  Socialism  as  Hanni- 
bal crossed  the  Alps,  and  all  he  has  to  prove  is 

170 


IN  THE  SOCIALIST  STATE        171 

that  his  theory  is  rational,  that  it  is  justified 
by  modern  tendencies  which  have  not  yet  worked 
themselves  out,  that  its  criticisms  on  the  exist- 
ing condition  of  things  are  accurate  and  open 
out  a  practical  way  of  social  development. 
He  can  quite  properly  argue  that  the  details 
must  be  settled  by  experience — the  experimental 
method — and  that  it  is  vain  to  construct  a 
complete  social  fabric  theoretically,  when  the 
various  elements  which  must  enter  into  it  will 
have  to  be  made,  tested  and  valued  by  the 
knowledge  that  will  be  gained  whilst  it  is  being 
built. 

There  are  certain  general  considerations  re- 
garding these  details  which,  however,  may  be 
profitably  discussed  with  a  view  to  ascertaining 
whether  there  are  any  fundamental  grounds 
for  the  conclusion  that  the  Socialist  state  must 
remain  for  ever  a  mere  figment  of  the  senti- 
mental imagination. 


1.  Ability. 

Let  us  consider  first  of  all  the  objection  that 
under  Socialism  the  mechanism  of  production 
must  remain  fixed,  that  invention  will  be  im- 
possible, and  that  labour  will  not  be  put  to  more 
and  more  efficient  use. 

With  this  point  in  mind,  Mr.  Mallock — to 
whom  I  must  refer  somewhat  frequently  in 
this  chapter,  because  he  is  the  only  writer  in 
this  country  who  has  undertaken  a  systematic 
examination  of  Socialism  that  is  worthy  of 
serious    consideration — in    an    unguarded    out- 


172      THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

burst  of  grandiloquence  has  declared:  "Socialism 
has  never  inaugurated  an  improved  chemi- 
cal process."  x  He  might  as  well  have  pro- 
claimed that  the  Binomial  Theorem  has  never 
woven  a  nightcap  nor  patched  a  pair  of  dilapi- 
dated trousers.  I  know  a  Socialist  who  has 
"inaugurated  an  improved  chemical  process"; 
and  I  know  another  who,  by  the  discovery  of 
radium,  lias  opened  out  the  way  for  a  revision 
of  our  physical  theorising;  I  know  a  third  who 
shares  with  Darwin  the  honour  of  having  es- 
tablished the  greatest  scientific  generalisation 
of  the  century,  and  of  having  revolutionised 
every  department  of  thought  in  consequence. 
But  that  is  not  the  question.  It  is:  Can 
Socialism  guarantee  the  conditions  under  which 
improved  chemieal  processes  will  be  inaugu- 
rated? If  it  can,  we  may  think  more  about  it; 
if  it  cannot,  we  may  dismiss  it  altogether  from 
our  minds,  and  pay  attention  to  Mr.  Malloek's 
amusing  theories  about  Ability  and  Aristocracy. 
Every  system  of  production  must  bear  the 
cost  of  its  own  improvement.  A  recognition  of 
this  has  been  the  secret  of  German  business 
success.  We  got  our  markets  under  the  favour- 
able smiles  of  our  political  conditions;  we  have 
lost  many  of  them  because  we  were  not  pre- 
pared to  pay  for  the  brains  of  discoverers  and 
inventors,  and  this  was  necessary  to  enable  us 
to  keep  our  customers.  America  got  its 
markets  because  the  forceful  wills  of  its  people 
enabled  them  to  take  the  fullest  and  the  most 
brutal  advantage  of  the  economic  laws  of  con- 

1  A  Critical  Examination  of  Socialism,  p.  4. 


IN  THE  SOCIALIST  STATE        173 

centration  of  capital  and  management.  Ger- 
many got  its  markets  because  it  established 
scientific  laboratories  and  linked  them  up  with 
industrial  processes. 

Now,  under  Socialism,  our  educational  insti- 
tutions would  be  revolutionised.  Science  would 
be  our  guide  in  everything.  Even  to-day, 
thanks  mainly  to  the  state  or  to  public  cor- 
porations working  with  the  aid  and  the  mind 
of  the  state,  this  change  is  beginning.  Agri- 
cultural, technical,  industrial  laboratories  are 
being  opened.  Universities  are  running  experi- 
mental farms,  are  testing  seeds,  manures, 
soils,  are  advising  farmers  about  crops,  stock, 
diseases,  dairy  products,  and  everything  else 
that  concerns  them;  they  are  establishing 
industrial  laboratories  where  post-graduate  stu- 
dents may  work  not  only  on  experiments  relat- 
ing to  pure  science,  but  on  those  relating  to 
applied  science;  town  councils  and  county 
councils  are  aiding  the  work  and  are  supple- 
menting it  by  independent  efforts  of  their  own. 
All  these  activities  have  been  hampered  and 
delayed  in  this  country,  in  the  first  place,  owing 
to  the  blindness  and  lack  of  education  amongst 
our  "captains  of  industry,"  who  have  followed 
the  profit-making  ideals  of  commercialism  only 
too  closely,  and,  in  the  second  place,  owing  to 
our  mistrust  of  state  action  making  us  look 
in  other  directions  for  our  aid,  and  also  making 
that  state  action  inefficient  and  inadequate 
when  it  was  at  last  begun.  It  must  not  be 
overlooked  that  it  is  in  Germany  where  the 
grip  of  commercialism  has  been  least  deadening, 
because  it  has  been  modified  by  other  national 


174      THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

impulses,  and  where  the  activities  of  the  state 
have  been  greatest,  that  this  development  of 
scientific  investigation  is  most  marked  and  has 
yielded  the  best  results. 

I  can  imagine  that  under  Socialism  every 
centre  of  higher  and  scientific  education  will 
have  its  applied  departments  and  laboratories, 
every  industry  and  group  of  industries  will  have 
their  staff  of  scientific  and  technical  experts, 
whilst  the  skill  of  the  workmen  in  every  factory 
and  workshop,  and  their  mental  keenness  will 
have  been  brought  to  a  pitch  of  excellence 
which  is  hardly  reached  by  our  most  expert 
workmen  to-day. 

This  is  the  foundation,  this  is  the  atmos- 
phere, of  all  improvements  in  industrial  pro- 
cess* a. 

But  the  critic  again  appears  with  an  objection. 
The  Socialist  cannot  find  managers  of  ability. 
Mr.  Mallock  writes  a  great  deal  about  this, 
and  though  he  does  his  best,  by  neglecting  to 
represent  Socialist  methods  with  accuracy,  to 
reason  out  his  conclusion,  he  really  fails,  and  in 
the  end  he  simply  jumps  to  it.1  I  propose  to 
discuss  it,   however. 

Whatever  may  be  our  conclusions  regarding 
the  reward  which  we  are  to  give  to  ability,  the 
Socialist  system  of  education,  the  Socialist 
organisation  of  scientific  laboratory  and  work- 
shop, and  the  Socialist  care  to  provide  equality 
of   opportunity   will,    unless   nature   herself   fail 

1  A  Critical  Examination  of  Socialism,  chap.  vii.  Especi- 
ally the  shipyard  illustration,  p.  77,  where  imaginary  diffi- 
culties are  gratuitously  assumed  and  the  most  incompetent 
actions  on  the  part  of  the  authorities  coolly  taken  for  granted. 


IN  THE  SOCIALIST  STATE        175 

us,  train  our  brains  and  produce  the  ability 
which  is  to  be  rewarded.  Our  critics  are  par- 
ticularly fond  of  using  the  argument  that  such 
and  such  a,  thing  is  unthinkable  and  is  contrary 
to  human  nature,  and  that  argument  has  to  be 
used  by  us  here.  For  what  we  are  told  by  our 
critics  to  assume  is,  that  there  will  be  a  great 
production  of  ability  and  a  provision  of  the 
richest  opportunitues  for  it  to  show  itself,  but 
that  it  will  yield  no  results.  The  demand  to 
believe  such  a  thing  is  palpably  absurd.  The 
intellectual  and  scientific  atmosphere  of  the 
Socialist  state  will  be  pregnant  with  discovery, 
invention,  and  improvement;  ability  will  be  so 
general  that  it  will  not  be  confined  to  one  class 
or  to  one  type  of  mind,  and  it  will  therefore  be 
available  to  all  kinds  of  prompting  from  mone- 
tary award  to  public  honour.  To-day,  let  us 
assume  (though  the  assumption  is  not  just) 
that  it  can  be  had  only  at  a  high  monetary 
price.  Under  Socialism  it  will  belong  to  so 
many  that  it  will  exert  itself  sometimes  from 
the  sheer  love  of  exercising  itself,  sometimes 
for  honours,  sometimes  for  money  perhaps; 
but  in  any  event  that  it  should  exist  and  do 
nothing  is  as  unthinkable  as  that  the  sun  should 
shine  without  emitting  light  and  heat.  There 
will  be  places  in  laboratories,  places  in  work- 
shops, places  in  the  public  administrative  ser- 
vices, open  for  it  and  demanding  to  be  filled. 
Skill  can  act  as  teacher,  as  experimenter,  as 
foreman,  as  manager,  as  director,  for  industry 
under  Socialism  will  be  carried  on  by  the  same 
differentiation  of  function  as  is  the  case  now. 
Therefore   we   can   safely   conclude   that   there 


176      THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

will  be  ability;  that  its  monopoly  will  be 
broken  down,  and  that  there  will  be  plenty  of 
opportunity  for  its  exercise  under  Socialism. 
The  precise  method  of  rewarding  it  can  be 
safely  left  to  experience  in  the  calm  assurance 
that  if  special  monetary  payment  is  necessary, 
Socialism  will  adapt  itself  to  that  necessity. 

But,  again  our  critic  objects,  experience  has 
shown  that  "public  opinion"  has  been  against 
mechanical  invention,  and  as  "  public  opinion" 
will  control  the  production  of  wealth  under 
Socialism,  the  ability  produced  in  the  way 
described  will  be  as  ruthlessly  sacrificed  as 
certain  primitive  peoples  sacrificed  their  female 
offspring.  There  will  be  just  enough  of  it 
preserved  to  keep  things  going.  And  here  they 
remind  us  of  the  wild  Luddites,  of  the  tribu- 
lations of  Arkwright  with  the  crowd,  and  so  on, 
and  defy  us  to  get  our  necks  out  of  that 
noose. 

I  must,  however,  point  out  a  distinction 
between  the  present  state  and  Socialism  which 
robs  these  historical  instances  of  any  value  for 
the  purpose  of  this  argument.  The  immediate 
and  local  effect  of  the  introduction  of  machinery 
to-day  is  to  displace  labour.  Labour  saving 
machinery  under  the  operations  of  our  present 
system  is  labour  substituting.  That  was  the 
first  effect  of  the  Arkwright  inventions.  It 
must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  years  when  the 
new  machines  were  being  introduced  lay  in  the 
period  when  labour  sunk  to  the  darkest  depths 
of  economic  misery.  Labour  was  clutching  at 
straws  rather  than  calmly  thinking  out  a  policy 
of   salvation.     Moreover,    be   it   not    forgotten, 


IN  THE  SOCIALIST  STATE        177 

Adam  Smith  himself  admitted  the  displace- 
ment of  labour  and  the  change  in  the  kind  of 
labour  demanded  after  the  introduction  of  new- 
machinery,  and  so  much  has  this  influenced 
economists  .that  they  have  frequently  discussed 
whether  men  so  displaced  have  a  claim  for 
compensation.  (Cf.  Fox  well,  Irregularity  of  Em- 
ployment.) 

From  this  distance  we  can  see  and  appreciate 
the  after  effects  of  the  mechanical  inventions, 
but  the  weaver  who  had  to  compete  with  them 
in  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  neither 
Could  see  nor  appreciate.  Ned  Ludd  was  not 
a  historian  surveying  the  nineteenth  century; 
he  was  a  workman  (or  something  of  the  kind) 
who  found  that  the  machines  were  emptying 
his  cupboard.  Such  a  system  as  that  must 
inevitably  bring  "public  opinion"  into  con- 
flict with  mechanical  invention. 

But  that  is  not  the  Socialist  system.  When 
we  have  public  ownership  of  the  machines, 
they  will  be  labour  saving  immediately  and 
not  in  the  long  run,  and  the  interest  of  the 
working  population  to  maintain  an  income  and 
keep  it  as  big  as  possible,  will  welcome  mechani- 
cal improvements  under  Socialism  as  heartily 
as  it  opposed  them  under  capitalism.  A  man 
working  with  his  own  machinery  is  glad  to  be 
told  of  methods  to  economise  his  labour;  men 
working  with  other  people's  machinery  regard 
such  methods  as  a  notice  for  some  of  them  to 
begin  walking  the  streets.  Historical  refer- 
ences must  be  used  with  some  discrimination. 

Now  I  can  complete  my  argument.  Under 
Socialism  there  will  be  more  ability,  there  will 


178      THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

be  more  opportunities  for  its  exercise,  and  a 
heartier  welcome  will  be  given  to  its  results 
than  under  the  present  system. 

The  mechanism  of  production  will  not  stand 
still,  but  will  steadily  improve  under  Socialism. 
Production  will  be  cheapened.  There  will  be 
a  larger  volume  of  national  wealth  to  enjoy; 
labour  will  be  more  efficiently  directed  and  be 
more  productive;  non-producers  will  be  reduced 
to  a  minimum;  and  the  common  incentive  to 
which  every  one  will  respond  will  be  the  steady 
reduction  of  the  necessary  drudgery  labour,  so 
that  the  free  time  during  which  a  man's  will 
has  full  play  may  be  as  ample  as  possible.  All 
that  means  industrial  progress. 

2.  Artistic  Genius. 

I  now  come  to  another  department  of  the 
same  survey.  The  arts  will  die,  it  is  said, 
when  Socialism  conies,  because  there  will  be 
no  intellectual  freedom  under  this  "coming 
tyranny,"  and  no  encouragement  to  the  imagi- 
nation under  this  "reign  of  materialism."  This 
objection  approaches  as  nearly  to  the  unthink- 
able as  it  can  do.  That,  in  a  community  or- 
ganised industrially  as  I  have  just  described, 
the  mind  of  man  must  become  servile  and  dull 
is  impossible.  Surely,  rather,  as  there  is  to  be 
ability,  leisure  and  a  generally  diffused  enjoy- 
ment of  private  property  and  leisure,  a  great 
impetus  will  be  given  to  all  intellectual  pur- 
suits, to  culture,  to  every  activity  of  the  free 
mind,  and  the  grandeur  of  public  buildings 
and  the  richness  of  public  treasures  which  will 


V 


IN  THE  SOCIALIST  STATE        179 

then  embody  the  dignity  of  the  communal  life, 
will  augment  that  impetus.  The  crushing 
misery  of  the  slum  as  a  home  and  the  street  as 
a  playground,  the  deadening  dulness  of  the 
respectable  quarters  of  our  towns,  where  our 
middle  classes  strive  in  vain  to  breathe  the 
atmosphere  of  culture,  will  have  gone,  and 
openness,  variety,  taste,  freshness  will  have 
taken  their  place.  The  individual  himself,  the 
community  of  which  he  is  a  part,  the  surround- 
ings in  which  he  lives,  will  be  charged  with 
mental  invigoration.  What  is  called  the  "reign 
of  materialism"  will  be  the  very  opposite  of 
that. 

But  the  critic  smiles,  "I  know  the  Socialist 
is  at  home  in  speculative  Sociology;  come  and 
tell  me  in  practice  how  this  can  work."  l  In 
response  I  propose  to  take  two  points,  one 
which  justifies  me  in  my  belief  that  the  intel- 
lectual life  is  possible  to  the  great  majority  of 
people,  and  the  other,  which  justifies  me  in 
setting  aside  the  "practical"  arguments  of  our 
opponents  as  being  of  no  substantial  value  in 
this  connection. 

My  belief  in  the  possibility  of  an  intellectual 
life  for  those  who  do  the  hardest  labour  has 
been  greatly  strengthened  in  recent  years  by 
my  contact  with  the  Adult  School  and  similar 
movements.     To    find,    Sunday    morning    after 

1  This  is  a  favourite  corner  into  which  our  critics  run. 
They  favour  it  because  whilst  in  it  they  can  make  all  kinds 
of  unwarranted  assumptions  whilst  they  pose  as  practical 
business  men.  The  student  can  find  illustrations  of  this  in 
nearly  every  chapter  of  A  Critical  Examination  of  Socialism. 
The  point  is  stated  categorically  at  p.  101. 


180      THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

Sunday  morning,  crowds  of  men  who  have 
been  working  laboriously  for  long  hours  in  fac- 
tories at  exhausting  drudgery  all  through  the 
week,  appearing  carefully  dressed  at  hours 
when  most  people  in  better  circumstances  are 
only  getting  up  or  have  got  no  further  than 
the  commencement  of  breakfast,  and  to  observe 
the  intellectual  keenness  which  these  men  show 
for  subjects  of  serious  import,  compel  one  to 
think  on  somewhat  Utopian  lines  of  what  might 
be  under  better  circumstances.  And  when,  in 
addition  to  that,  one  also  discovers  that  these 
factory  workers  are  tenants  of  some  near-by 
allotment,  where  they  grow  excellent  kitchen 
produce  and  cultivate  beautiful  flowers  for  the 
esthetic  enjoyment  of  the  work,  one's  optimism 
for  the  future  is  increased,  and  one's  assurance 
that  an  intellectual  response  will  be  made  to 
the  changes  which  Socialism  proposes  becomes 
fixed  on  a  rock. 

I  now  come  to  my  matter  of  practical  detail. 
If  there  is  any  citizen  of  the  Socialist  state 
who  has  drawn  out  the  sympathies  of  the  whole 
body  of  Socialist  critics  more  than  any  other, 
it  is  the  poet.  His  case  seems  to  have  weighed 
on  the  minds  of  most  of  our  critics.  How  is 
he  to  be  discovered?  How  is  he  to  be  pub- 
lished? How  is  he  to  make  a  living?  The 
press  is  to  be  in  the  hands  of  the  state.  Manu- 
scripts must  be  read  by  a  state  official  with, 
perhaps,  less  taste  than  one  of  our  own  poets 
laureate  or  our  censor  of  plays.  Books  will 
not  be  allowed  to  bear  royalties.  This  net  of 
posers  is  thrown  over  the  head  of  the  Socialist 
with  all  the  dexterity  shown  by  a  retiarius  in 


IN  THE  SOCIALIST  STATE        181 

a  Roman  gladiatorial  show.  Is  the  Socialist 
enmeshed?     Let  us  see. 

Some  honest  work  has  never  been  bad  for 
the  good .  poet.  Indeed,  when  our  industrial 
towns  were  "nests  of  singing  birds,"  as  some 
of  them  have  been  before  commercialism  trans- 
formed craftsmanship  into  toil,  the  industrial 
experience  of  the  poet  added  strength  to  the 
wings  of  his  song.1  The  democratic  poets  have 
become  mute  because  the  darkness  of  commer- 
cialism has  settled  on  their  souls.  The  work 
which  the  poet  will  have  to  do  under  Socialism 
will  be  congenial,  for  it  will  be  provided  auto- 
matically by  the  organisation  which  provides 
equality  of  opportunity,  and  it  will  therefore 
not  hamper  his  muse.  So  Socialism  will  have 
its  poets. 

How  will  they  publish?  This  is  one  of  the 
questions  which  can  be  satisfactorily  answered 
only  by  time.  That  they  must  publish  is  quite 
apparent,  and  it  is  simply  perversity  for  any 
one  to  argue  seriously  that  such  an  insignifi- 
cant problem  as  that  will  baffle  society.  But 
let  me  try  to  construct  a  little  bit  of  Socialist 
society  by  using  the  past  as  an  indication  of 
the  future.  When  time  went  more  leisurely 
than  it  does  and  the  hustle  and  bustle  of  com- 
mercialism had  not  struck  us  like  a  cyclone, 
people  lived  a  pretty  full  intellectual  life  in 
societies  like  the  famous  Edinburgh  Select 
Society    or    in    those    mournful    gatherings    of 

1  The  great  outburst  of  lyrical  song  in  Scotland,  in  the 
latter  part  of  the  eighteenth  century,  was  purely  democratic; 
and  was  greatly  enriched  by  the  fact  that  the  singers  were 
ploughmen,  weavers,  shjemakers  and  such-like. 


182      THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

cronies  which  fill  so  much  of  the  canvas  of  the 
life  of  Burns.  There  seems  little  doubt  but 
that  if  we  could  possess  ourselves  once  more 
of  our  lost  leisure  (say,  by  subordinating  ma- 
chines to  men  instead  of  men  to  machines) 
these  circles  and  coteries  would  revive,  for 
man's  intellectual  life  is  as  social  in  its  require- 
ments BS  his  industrial  life.  If  they  did  revive 
general  culture  would  leap  forward  with  a  bound. 
One  of  the  reasons  why  an  unworthy  literature 
is  finding  such  a  market  to-day  is  that  the 
destruction  of  intellectual  coteries  lias  with- 
drawn the  great  pari  »>l'  the  intellectual  stimulus 
which  the  best  of  men  require.  Individualism 
in  reading  and  thinking  gives,  fir^t,  trashy 
journalism,  and  then  trashy  literature,  a  chance. 
Well,  under  the  conditions  which  would  come 
with  Socialism,  Science,  Art,  Literature  would 
have  their  associations  everywhere.  This  is 
tin-  audience  for  our  poet.  He  delights  and 
charms  his  friends.  He  appears  before  the 
connoisseurs  as  Burns  did  in  Edinburgh,  or 
before  the  socially  select  as  Tennyson  did, 
or  before  the  public  as  Dickens,  or  Carlyle,  or 
Thackeray  did.  Thus  the  poet  gets  his  repu- 
tation. But  he  has  yet  to  find  a  printing- 
press  and  a  publisher,  and  the  Socialist  state 
owns  the  one  and  is  the  other,  we  are  told! 

The  Socialist  state,  however,  is  only  an 
instrument  of  public  opinion,  and  I  have  a 
firm  conviction  that  the  divine  poet,  or  any 
other  kind  of  poet,  would  have  no  more  diffi- 
culty with  a  literary  faculty  of  the  Socialist 
state  than  with  the  reader  of  a  London  pub- 
lisher.    Still,  I  shall  not  leave  it  at  that,  because 


IN  THE  SOCIALIST  STATE        183 

I  desire  to  show  in  a  greater  fulness  the  elas- 
ticity of  the  Socialist  state.  I  return  to  the 
literary  coterie  which  first  encouraged  and 
applauded. the  genius. 

Where  men  have  leisure,  culture  and  means, 
the  literary  output  is  great,  and  the  most  natu- 
ral thing  in  the  world  for  those  coteries  to  do 
would  be  to  publish.  They  would  take  the 
place  of  the  ancient  patron;  they  will  do  the 
publishing — just  as  the  Royal  Society  to-day 
publishes  monographs,  or  the  Early  English 
Text  Society  or  the  New  Spalding  Club  issues 
historical  records.  Not  only  that,  for  I  can 
easily  imagine  that  these  societies  will  have 
control  of  presses.  I  do  not  say  that  will  be 
so,  but  I  do  say  that  if  it  were  so  the  poet  would 
have  a  much  better  chance  of  publication  than 
he  has  now,  and  also  that  such  a  thing  would 
not  be  inconsistent  with  Socialist  theory  and 
requirements. 

Then  the  market!  If  a  better  distribution  of 
wealth  would  turn  the  imperfectly  clad  millions 
of  backs  into  a  field  for  the  employment  of 
British  labour  as  the  prairie-land  of  Canada  is 
made  a  field  for  British  capital,  what  a  fruit- 
ful soil  for  British  art  would  be  the  British 
home.  To-day  the  patronage  of  art  belongs 
to  a  small  class;  under  Socialism  it  would 
belong  to  the  whole  people.  On  this  wide 
field  all  art  would  flourish.  To-day  the  patrons 
are  so  few  that  the  original  genius  has  a  bitter 
struggle.  It  will  not  tread  upon  worn  ways, 
and  its  feet  are  pierced  with  briars.  It  gets 
soured;  it  declares  war;  it  becomes  ugly  with 
the  pain   at   its   heart.     Under    Socialism   and 


184      THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

with  the  opportunities  which  a  vast  patron- 
age affords,  it  will  remain  natural  and  sweet. 
Nothing  is  more  certain  than  that  the  advance 
of  Socialism  will  be  heralded  by  an  invigora- 
tion  of  the  aesthetic  tastes. 

Still,  there  is  the  remuneration  to  be  settled. 
I  was  never  able  to  see  the  alleged  difficulties 
about  this  until  I  read  Mr.  Mallock's  proof 
of  its  impossibility.  The  value  of  a  book,  he 
says,  as  determined  by  Socialist  economics  is 
its  cost  of  selling  up  and  binding,  and  conse- 
quently, according  to  that  economics,  if  Dickens 
made  a  living  off  his  books  it  was  "by  rob- 
bing  his  compositors."  l  If  the  working  of  a 
Socialist  state  is  examined  by  a  mind  so  blind 
as  to  facts,  and  so  confused  as  to  economic 
reasoning,  one  can  see  how  these  mysterious 
difficulties  arise.  The  argument  used  above  is 
this.  The  value  of  a  knife  is  the  cost  of  labour 
of  the  knife  grimier  and  hi^  assistants;  if  the 
iron  ore  quarrymail  and  the  smelter  make  any- 
thing out  of  it,  it  is  "by  robbing  the  knife- 
grinder."  A  book  consists  of  two  things.  It 
is  the  physical  thing  produced  by  binding  up 
printed  sheets;  it  is  also  the  intellectual  thing 
of  ideas,  of  art,  of  information,  or  the  like.  Its 
cost  must  cover  the  purchase  of  both.  Mr. 
Mallock  gets  into  his  bog  of  difficulties  by 
forgetting  what  a  book  is,  not  by  applying  a 
critical  mind  to  the  Socialist  state.  Now,  the 
payment  for  the  second  aspect  of  a  book  can 
be  determined  in  a  variety  of  ways.  The 
writer  could  be  put  on  a  civil  list,  he  could  be 

1  A  Critical  Examination  of  Socialism,  p.  53. 


V 


IN  THE  SOCIALIST  STATE        185 

subsidised  by  his  patron  coterie — but  this  is 
the  point,  there  is  nothing  in  Socialist  theory- 
preventing  his  being  rewarded  in  the  simplest 
of  all  fashions,  from  the  sales  of  his  book.  If 
the  cost  of  composing  and  otherwise  producing 
and  publishing  the  book  is  x  and  it  is  sold  at 
x  +  y  to  cover  remuneration  for  the  author,  I 
have  yet  to  learn  that  such  a  transaction  vio- 
lates any  canon  of  Socialist  economics. 

So,  under  Socialism,  we  may  have  the  poet, 
and  he  may  have  his  public,  his  publisher  and 
his  remuneration. 

And  I  have  taken  the  poet  to  represent  the 
intellectual  worker  of  every  kind  who  would 
be  treated  mutatis  mutandis  in  a  similar  way. 

There  is  not  much  fear  of  intellectual  stag- 
nation in  the  Socialist  state. 

3.  Minority  Rights. 

The  difficulty  of  the  poet  is  generally  but  a 
preliminary  to  what  is  meant  to  be  the  still 
greater  difficulty  of  an  opposition  between  the 
powers  that  be  and  the  critical  newspaper, 
which  must  lead  to  the  suppression  of  the 
latter.  If  Socialism  were  a  divinely  ordered 
society  the  critical  newspaper — especially  the 
daily  one — might  be  suppressed  altogether  in 
the  intellectual  and  moral  interest  of  the  public, 
for  there  is  no  more  melancholy  spectacle  to-day 
than  the  party  press,  with  its  misrepresenta- 
tions, its  suppressions,  and  its  tongue  in  its 
cheek — unless  it  be  the  spectacle  of  those  who 
read  it  and  believe  it. 

The   supposition    of   our   critics    is   that   the 


186      THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

"powers  that  be"  under  Socialism  will  be  all 
powerful  and  that,  whilst  remaining  quite  sane, 
they  will  be  oppressively  tyrannical.  They  will 
stamp  out  hostile  opinion.  They  will  not  per- 
mit a  whisper  of  criticism.  They  will  govern 
like  a  South  American  president  with  an  army 
at  his  back,  with  venial  judges  on  the  bench, 
and  with  political  police  in  their  communes. 
In  other  words,  they  will  have  forgotten  all 
the  world's  experience  of  how  to  make  govern- 
ments  stable,  they  will  have  ceased  to  appre- 
ciate  the  safety  of  free  speech  and  of  open 
criticism,  they  will  have  departed  from  the 
axiom  1 1  i;it  civic  peace  is  maintained  by  the 
liberty  to  discuss  and  to  grumble.  One  must 
grant  this  extraordinary  revolution  in  the  art 
and  science  of  government,  this  unthinkable 
loss  of  capacity  cm  the  part  of  governors,  before 
one  can  even  conceive  the  objection  with  which 
I  am  dealing.  And  be  it  noted  in  the  passing, 
when  one  has  granted  that,  one  has  destroyed 
the  political  conditions  of  freedom  under  which 
alone  Socialism  can  not  only  exist,  but  actually 
come  into  existence.  My  answer  to  the  objec- 
tion, therefore,  is  that  its  very  conception  is 
inconsistent  with  the  principles  of  Socialism 
and,  in  the  light  of  history,  is  a  palpable 
absurdity. 

I  am,  however,  unwilling  to  part  with  it  at 
that,  because  I  am  again  anxious  to  face  the 
real  problems  of  Socialist  administration  so  far 
as  reason  and  experience  have  as  yet  thrown 
light  upon  them,  and  this  objection  leads  to 
some  important  considerations.  There  will  be 
parties    in    the    Socialist    state;     there    will    be 


V 


IN  THE  SOCIALIST  STATE        187 

governments  and  oppositions — majorities  and 
minorities.  Truth  and  progress  will  be  then,  as 
they  have  always  been,  hammered  out  by  rival 
tongues  and  opposing  brains. 

In  discussing  Socialist  administration,  the  crit- 
ics of  Socialism  have  always  overlooked  the 
large  part  that  voluntary  organisations  are  to 
play  inside  the  state.  For  instance,  the  family 
will  probably  enjoy  an  influence  which  it  could 
not  acquire  under  commercialism,  for  under 
commercialism  it  has  been  steadily  decaying.1 
The  relation  between  parents  and  children  will 
be  closer,  and  be  continued  for  longer  periods 
than  is  now  possible,  and,  consequently,  the 
home  will  resume  its  lost  religious  significance. 
It  will  be  altar  fires  that  will  burn  on  its 
hearths,  and  sacramental  meals  that  will  lie 
on  its  tables.  The  free  man  with  leisure  will 
show  his  social  nature  not  only  by  living  in 
crowds,  but  by  forming  for  his  own  delight 
groups  of  men  like-minded  to  himself.  One  of 
these  voluntary  organisations  will  undoubtedly 
be  a  political  party,  for  I  cannot  conceive  of  a 
time  when  different  practical  proposals  in  state- 
craft will  not  exist  or  not  be  transformed  into 
great  rival  policies  and  principles  of  government 
The  state  will  have  to  give  these  parties  free 
and  fair  play,  because  the  state  will  be  demo- 

1  It  is  an  amusing  commentary  upon  the  charge  against 
Socialism  that  it  seeks  to  abolish  marriage,  that  so  soon  as 
there  was  a  Socialist  municipal  control  at  Lille  it  abolished 
fees  for  getting  married  in  order  that  difficulties  in  regu- 
lating family  connections  might  be  removed.  Many  people 
who  would  not,  or  could  not,  pay  the  old  high  fees  at  once 
presented  themselves  to  be  married,  and  literally  blessed 
"the  enemies  of  the  family"  for  their  moral  action. 


188      THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

cratically  governed.  Each  party  will  have  to 
look  after  its  own  interest,  and  it  will,  there- 
fore, be  essential  that  each  party  has  its  own 
organs.  To-day,  in  the  Palace  of  Westminster, 
the  van  9  parties  have  their  own  rooms;  they 
are  recognised  by  the  Speaker  and  the  other 
officers  of  the  House  of  Commons;  Hansard 
reports  all  speeches  impartially.  Under  Social- 
ism I  can,  therefore,  easily  imagine  that  the 
party  newspapers  would  be  under  party  control, 
parties  and  groups  having  certain  rights  of 
publication,  just  as  a  member  of  the  Amer'can 
House  of  Representatives  has  the  right  to  hand 
in  the  manuscript  of  a  speech  and  get  it  printed 
as  though  he  had  delivered  it.  The  pre 
might  be  under  party  management  with  safe- 
guards, or  party  rights  might  consist  in  a 
power  to  claim  the  use  of  presses.  The  point 
i^  trivial,  and  if  critics  busy  themselves  devising 
all  kinds  of  possible  anomalies  and  difficulties, 
all  1  can  say  is  that,  if  even  to-day  the  country 
decided  to  nationalise  its  printing-presses  and 
to  make  parties  officially  responsible  for  the 
papers  published  in  their  interests,  two  or  three 
business  men  connected  with  party  newspapers 
could  draw  up  within  a  week  a  scheme  of 
working  which  could  set  the  whole  plan  going, 
and  produce  a  freer  and  a  more  responsible 
press  than  we  have  now. 

Once  we  disabuse  our  minds  of  the  totally 
erroneous  idea  that  a  government's  interests 
lie  in  suppressing  every  opinion  but  its  own, 
every  serious  obstacle  in  the  way  of  free 
political  speech  and  writing  under  Socialism 
disappears,    and    the    problem    becomes    one    of 


IN  THE  SOCIALIST  STATE        189 

business  arrangement.  To-day  the  syndicated 
newspaper  groups  are  solving  it.  The  central 
management  from  some  London  office  of  half- 
a-dozen  papers  printed  throughout  the  country, 
the  practice  (as  every  one  who  gets  newspaper 
cuttings  knows)  which  certain  political  offices 
are  adopting  of  sending  out  special  articles, 
Leaders,  comments,  and  even  letters  signed  by 
individuals,  to  scores  of  different  newspapers, 
which  print  them  as  though  they  were  of  local 
origin,  are  paving  the  way  for  responsible 
control  of  frankly  partisan  publications.  They 
are  doing  more,  moreover.  They  are  warning 
the  public  that  the  concentration  of  capital 
and  the  union  of  the  anti-social  interests  against 
the  common  interests,  the  day  is  rapidly  fading 
away  when  every  party  had  a  chance  of 
upholding  its  views  through  the  press.  The 
monopoly  of  the  organs  of  public  opinion, 
which  was  long  supposed  to  be  inevitable  under 
Socialism,  is,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  inevitable 
under  capitalism,  and  the  fading  privilege  of 
free  discussion  will  only  be  restored  when 
economic  power  is  better  distributed,  or,  when 
concentrated,  is  democratically  controlled.  For, 
it  must  be  observed,  the  suppression  of  critical 
opposition,  impossible  so  far  as  a  government 
or  public  authority  is  concerned,  is  quite  possible 
when  a  combination  of  capitalist  interests  makes 
up  its  mind  to  effect  it. 

4.  Workshop  Management. 

In  order  that  one  may  appreciate  the  position 
taken  up  in  the  last  section,  it  must  be  under- 


190      THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

stood  quite  clearly  that  the  Socialist  state  is 
not  merely  to  have  a  political  form.  It  will 
not  be  embodied  exclusively  in  a  few  politically 
controlled  departments  under  the  shadow  of  the 
House  of  Parliament.  It  will  also  consist  of 
an  industrial  organisation,  which  will  have  a 
very  decisive  influence  on  public  opinion,  and 
will  also  act  as  a  check  upon  the  political 
organisation.  At  the  head  of  this  side  of  the 
state  will  be  the  ablest  business  men,  economic, 
scientists,  statisticians  in  the  country,  all  having 
risen  through  the  lower  grades  of  the  particular 
departments  to  which  they  belong.  Only  some 
of  the  means  of  production  will  be  directly 
under  their  charge,  like  railways  and  canals. 
They  will  be  responsible  for  foreign  trade,  for 
general  labour  legislation,  possibly  for  educa- 
tion; they  will  regulate  the  volume  of  national 
production  and  determine  exchange  ratios;  they 
will  have  charge  of  the  finaneial  arrangements 
of  the  community;  they  will  decide — subject  to 
the  assent  of  the  political  state — the  varying 
dividing  lines  between  associated  and  individ- 
ualist production,  for  these  lines  will  not  be 
drawn  on  one  day  for  all  time.  And  if  such  a 
scientific  control  and  regulation  of  production 
seems  strange  to  minds  unfamiliar  with  the 
very  thought  of  it,  I  content  myself  by  remind- 
ing such  readers  that  before  many  years  have 
passed  over  our  heads,  trusts  of  various  forms 
will  be  doing  in  certain  industries  practically 
the  same  work.  In  this  respect,  as  in  others, 
we  shall  grow  into  the  Socialist  state.  As 
Socialism  is  the  child  of  capitalism,  capitalism 
will  show  it  how  to  set  about  its  business. 


IN  THE  SOCIALIST  STATE        191 

In  the  industrial  state,  too,  there  will  be 
great  activity  amongst  voluntary  organisations. 
The  main  industrial  division  under  capitalism  is 
between  capital  and  labour — employer  and 
employed.  *  That  is  "the  class  war"  now. 
But  there  will  be  wars  under  Socialism  too, 
the  main  cleavage  then  being  between  consumer 
and  producer.  It  will  be  the  interest  of  the 
whole  community  minus  the  producers  of  each 
article  severally,  to  get  the  cost  of  production 
reduced  to  a  minimum,  and  though  the  better 
conditions  of  life  and  the  prevailing  atmos- 
phere of  justice  will  prevent  that  opposition 
from  developing  hostile  camps  such  as  we  have 
at  present,  no  harm  is  done  by  assuming  the 
worst  that  can  happen.  We  must  put  the  most 
severe  tests  on  our  faith. 

We  must,  therefore,  look  for  a  survival  of 
trade  unionism  in  the  Socialist  state.  Those 
engaged  in  the  different  sections  of  production 
will  have  their  voluntary  organisations,  which 
will  very  likely  be  international  in  their  scope. 
They  will,  in  all  probability,  be  utilised  for 
advisory  purposes  by  the  central  authorities, 
and  they  will  be  consulted  when  any  change 
in  exchange  ratios  or  in  industrial  processes 
is  being  contemplated.  They  will  also  be  a 
convenient  medium  for  those  insurances  which 
will  be  necessary  to  meet  temporary  displace- 
ments of  labour  and  other  accidents  which 
must  overtake  the  best  organised  system  of 
production. 

Whether  these  organisations  will  appoint, 
or  have  any  voice  in  appointing,  workshop 
managers   and   business   directors,    is   a   matter 


192      THE  SOCIALIST   MOVEMENT 

upon  which  no  definite  opinion  can  as  yet  be 
formed.  Let  us  remind  ourselves  of  the  system. 
There  is  a  mass  of  workmen  at  the  base  of  the 
structure,  above  them  is  a  large  army  of 
foremen,  over  them  departmental  managers, 
and  over  them  general  workshop  directors. 
Then  we  come  to  the  organisation  of  groups 
of  industries  and  of  districts.  A  graded  body 
of  managers  will  be  responsible  f<>r  that,  ending 
perhaps  with  a  district  director.  The  widest 
area  of  all — the  national  community — will  be 
CO-ordinati'd    by    the    bodies    to    which    I    have 

already  referred.  If  then-  i^  anything  unfamiliar 
about  all  this,  I  again  commend  the  troubled 
spirit  tn  study  the  organisation  of  the  Railway 
Clearing  Bouse,  a  trust  like  the  American  Steel 
Corporation,  or  a  German  Kartel  formed  f<»r 
the  purpose  of  distributing  markets  and  profits. 
The  organisation  of  the  1  ><-t  trade  unions, 
particularly  the  German  organisation,  also 
throws  light   upon  this  subject. 

Then  the  question  which  I  have  already  put 
to  myself  may  be  considered:  II<>w  are  all 
these  grades  to  be  fed?  The  workers  will  be 
provided     from     th<-    schools.      In    the    great 

majority  of  cases  youths  have  their  own  bent. 
The  Socialist  child  must  work,  and  he  will, 
as  a  rule,  choose  bis  own  calling.  Should  he 
desire  to  follow  some  profession,  and  there  are 
more  applicants  than  vacancies,  a  well-devis  <\ 
examination  of  selected  students  will  provide 
the  desired  "equality  of  opportunity."  Should 
he  desire  to  follow  a  technical  line,  the  schools 
will  be  in  the  closest  touch  with  the  workshops, 
and  the  best  advice  will  be  given  him  regarding 


V 


IN  THE  SOCIALIST  STATE        193 

openings  and  demand*1  The  coercion  about 
which  we  hear  so  much  will  rarely  be  expe- 
rienced, all  the  more  so  as  a  large  part  of  our 
unpleasant  work  will  have  disappeared,  owing 
to  mechanical  and  other  invention  and  discovery. 
It  will  certainly  be  no  prominent  feature  in  the 
Socialist  state. 

What  of  the  selection  of  managers?  Two 
schools  of  co-operative  thought  dispute  this 
point  between  them,  and  are  experimenting 
with  it,  and  until  the  contest  and  the  experi- 
ments have  gone  on  a  little  longer  we  may 
regard  it  as  unsettled.  There  is,  in  the  first 
place,  the  school  which  believes  in  the  self 
governing  workshop.  It  believes  that  the 
workpeople  should  appoint  their  managers, 
either  directly,  or  indirectly  through  some 
representative  committee.  The  objection  to 
this  view  is  that  it  regulates  production  by  the 
producer  himself,  whereas  production  should 
be  regulated  by  the  whole  community.  The 
argument  in  favour  of  it  is  that  it  secures  just 
treatment  to  the  producer,  and  protects  him 
against  exploitation.  The  objection  to  the  other 
view  is  that  under  it  the  consumer  can  tyran- 
nise over  the  producer,  and  can  deprive  him 
of  what  is  a  fair  reward  for  his  labour.  The 
productive  works  of  the  Co-operative  Wholesale 
Society  in  England  are  often  charged  with  this 
lapse  from  co-operative  grace.  In  favour  of  it 
is  the  fact  that  only  by  such  a  scheme  of  man- 
agement can  all  the  producing  functions  be  put 

1  This  expedient  is  being  adopted  in  some  schools  to-day 
with  satisfactory  results. 


194      THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

upon  terms  of  equality  and  even-handed  justice 
be  done  to  them. 

The  two  schools  of  co-operative  propaganda 
used  to  be  in  pretty  sharp  conflict  with  each 
other,  but  they  are  now  coming  into  a  more 
friendly  touch,  with  the  result  that  they  are 
blending  together.  This  is  the  common  history 
of  such  rival  theories.  They  unite;  one  does 
not  crush  the  other  out.  Socialist  management 
will  be  determined  by  the  further  experience  of 
co-operation.  The  directors  of  areas  and  the 
central  controlling  staff  will  undoubtedly  repre- 
sent the  consuming  public;  the  managers  in 
direct  touch  with  workshop  organisation  will 
have  to  carry  the  confidence  of  the  workers  as 
well  as  serve  the  needs  of  the  consumers.  The 
argument  that  this  double  task  will  produce 
deadlocks,  that  it  will  produce  managers  incap- 
able of  doing  their  duty  and  over-indulgent  to 
the  workpeople,  is  a  mere  bogey.  Problems  of 
precisely  this  character  are  now  being  solved  by 
the  co-operative  movement,  and  if  they  have 
given  this  movement  some  trouble,  as  they 
undoubtedly  have,  we  must  not  forget  that  the 
co-operative  experience  will  be  handed  down, 
not  only  as  a  guide,  but  as  an  industrial  habit. 


» 


CHAPTER  X 

THE   SOCIALIST   MOVEMENT 

Socialism  is  a  tendency,  not  a  revealed 
dogma,  and  therefore  it  is  modified  in  its  forms 
of  expression  from  generation  to  generation. 
The  goal  remains  the  same,  but  the  path 
twists  and  twines  like  every  other  human  path. 
Its  wayside  aspects  also  change,  and  the  people 
who  walk  upon  it  do  not  remain  the  same.  At 
one  time  an  expanding  industry  draws  men  in 
one  direction,  as  a  gold  discovery  in  new  lands 
draws  men  from  old  fields  of  labours  and  casts 
a  new  glamour  over  men's  vision.  At  another 
time  thought  is  inspired  by  some  impulse 
imparted  by  scientific  discovery  when  every 
idea  which  dominates  man  is  moulded  by  that 
impulse.  At  yet  another  time  some  outstanding 
cause  becomes  the  centre  of  all  vital  intellec- 
tual force  and  every  other  movement  tends 
to  express  itself  in  relation  to  that  cause.  Thus 
we  have  seen  during  the  past  century  the 
magnets  round  which  men's  minds  have  centred 
change  again  and  again  and  human  interests 
change   with   them.     Political    enfranchisement, 

195 


196      THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

scientific  discovery,  the  accumulation  of  wealth, 
religion  have  dominated  thought,  and  have 
created  philosophies,  outlooks,  systems  of  criti- 
cism, motives.  Fluctuations  in  the  Socialist 
movement  and  a  varying  emphasis  placed  upon 
aspects  of  the  Socialist  creed,  have  marked 
these  changes  as  the  tides  mark  the  varying 
course  of  the  moon. 

1.  Saint-Simon  and  Fourier. 

Long  before  there  was  what  can  can  be  called 
a  Socialist  movement,  there  were  men  groping 
after  the  Socialist  plan,  examining  society  with 
lanterns  lit  from  the  lamp  of  Socialism,  making 
demands  which  were  partial  discoveries  of 
Socialism  itself,  in  the  same  way  that  many 
pioneers  set  foot  on  America  before  America 
itself  was  explored. 

The  word  Socialism  itself  appears  to  have 
been  first  used  in  this  country  in  1835  to 
describe  Owen  and  his  work.  It  was  adopted 
by  the  Frenchman  Reybaud  and  applied  by 
him  to  the  theories  of  Saint-Simon  and  Fourier. 
At  that  time  it  was  used  to  indicate  theories 
of  social  reconstruction  in  which  the  state  had 
no  part — moral  and  idealistic  movements  of 
Utopists;  and  when  Marx  and  Engels  opened 
a  new  chapter  in  the  history  of  the  movement 
by  insisting  upon  the  political  character  of  the 
transformation,  they  chose  the  word  Com- 
munist as  their  title,  and,  in  the  famous  Com- 
munist Manifesto,  attacked  the  Socialism  of 
their  predecessors.  One  of  the  amusing  tricks 
which  the  whirligig  of  time  has  brought,   is  a 


THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT      197 

complete  inversion  of  the  application  of  these 
terms.1 

The  French  Revolution  not  only  stirred  up 
into  confidence  all  the  optimistic  expectation  of 
human  nature  but  taught  it  to  speak,  to  edu- 
cate, to  agitate.  It  was  springtime  on  the 
earth.  The  people  had  not  experienced  them- 
selves; their  friends  had  not  been  disillusioned. 
Years  afterwards  Owen,  so  typical  of  his  age, 
could  serenely  argue  that  simple  reason  would 
convert  kings  and  that  a  worthy  homily 
addressed  to  the  angel  at  the  gate  of  Paradise 
would  induce  her  to  lower  her  sword.  This 
enthusiastic  naivete  was  also  the  soul  of  Saint- 
Simon  who  was  the  first  to  draw  to  himself 
a  company  that  can  be  called  Socialist.  These 
pioneers  were  queer  folk.  They  were  children 
to  the  day  of  their  death.  The  strange  being, 
Saint-Simon,  with  his  valet  solemnly  wakening 
him  every  morning  with  the  salutation:  "Re- 
member, monsieur  le  comte,  that  you  have 
great  things  to  do,"  is  separated  from  us  by 
worlds  of  feeling.  And  yet  his  lack  of  humour 
and  his  crystalline  sincerity  which  made  him 
cheerfully  accept  the  terrible  poverty  of  his 
later  years,  endear  him  to  us. 

In  1817,  when  he  was  forty-three  years  of 
age,  he  first  wrote  on  social  matters,  and  for 
eight    years,    till    his    death,    he    continued    to 

1  One  of  the  many  displays  of  ignorance  which  the  anti- 
Socialist  organisations  have  made,  is  a  leaflet  which  one 
of  them  has  published  showing  how  Marx  attacked  "Social- 
ism" and  thereby  denounced  the  errors  of  his  followers! 
The  same  mistake  has  crept  into  books  like  Guthrie's  Social- 
ism before  the  French  Revolution. 


198      THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

sketch  out  the  pathway  to  human  freedom. 
He  had  the  spirit  of  organisation  in  him.  He 
felt  that  the  disintegration  of  society  which 
followed  upon  the  end  of  feudalism  and  marked 
the  beginning  of  commercialism  was  ruinous, 
and  his  plea  was  that  men  of  science  should 
manage  industry  benevolently  and  wisely  in  the 
interests  of  the  whole  people.  He  put  the 
coping-stone  on  his  system  by  his  last  work, 
The  New  Christianity,  in  which  he  laid  down  the 
fundamental  doctrine  of  social  religion,  that 
humanity  is  a  fraternity  and  should  act  as 
such.  On  the  side  of  economics  he  had  a  very 
clear  vision  that  accumulated  property  was 
being  used  for  exploiting  purposes.  That  was 
the  explanation  of  poverty,  and  to  put  an  end 
to  poverty  a  moral  society  would  bend  every 
energy.  This  mingling  of  economics  and  morals 
was  Saint-Si  monian  Socialism.  The  founder 
had  few  followers  during  his  lifetime,  but  he 
left  a  school  behind  him. 

Like  all  schools,  it  evolved  and  threw  out 
shoots.  Comtism  was  one  of  its  branches, 
another  branch  grew  out  towards  modern 
Socialism.  It  is  this  branch  which  I  must 
trace. 

Its  first-fruits  was  a  community  of  enthusi- 
asts, able  and  well-educated,  who  lived  from 
a  common  purse.  But  it  also  produced  ideas. 
The  idea  of  association  was  amplified  and 
enriched  at  its  hands  and  given  an  historical 
setting.  Association  was  shown  to  be  an  his- 
torical tendency  which  alternated  with  one 
in  the  opposite  direction.  The  reign  of 
anarchy,    war,    exploitation,    had    worked    itself 


THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT      199 

out  when  it  produced  the  proletariate;  the 
reign  of  co-operation  of  organic  unity,  was 
about  to  begin  with  religion  as  its  inspiration. 
At  the  same  time  the  economics  of  Saint- 
Simonism  were  elaborated,  and  the  necessity  of 
the  communal  control  of  the  instruments  of 
production  was  proved  by  a  reasoned  sequence 
of  argument.  Society  was  to  be  a  differen- 
tiated organisation  in  which  merit  alone  was  to 
determine  the  place  of  a  man,  and  the  value  of 
his  services  was  to  determine  the  character  of 
his  reward.  But  on  its  mystical  side  it  toppled 
over  as  so  many  fantastic  religious  movements 
have  done.  When  men  treat  the  flesh  as  any- 
thing but  flesh  and  allow  themselves  to  wander 
on  the  bewitched  paths  of  symbolism  and 
mysticism,  they  are  in  danger  of  becoming  the 
slaves  of  the  earthy  realities  which  they  think 
they  have  dissolved,  or  of  becoming  mad;  and 
the  blight  of  both  misfortunes  ended  the  school 
of  Saint-Simon.  But  its  healthy  tenets  never 
died.  They  were  discussed  by  bands  of  men 
wherever  discontent,  either  intellectual  or  eco- 
nomic, agitated  Europe.  Society  kept  them  in 
her  heart.  Saint-Simonism  quickened  the  social 
movement  of  the  century. 

Fourier,  for  instance,  wrote  before  Saint- 
Simon,  but  it  was  Saint-Simonian  influence 
that  made  Fourierism  a  living  thing.  Fourier 
makes  the  small  commune,  which  he  calls  the 
Phalanstery,  the  governing  unity  of  his  ideal 
world.  He  has  no  fantastic  hierarchy  of  wise 
men.  In  that  respect  he  keeps  upon  solid 
earth.  He  was  as  democratic  as  Saint-Simon 
was    aristocratic,    as     decentralising    as    Saint- 


200      THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

Simon  was  centralising.  The  locality  is  where 
wealth  is  actually  created,  and  there  one  finds 
the  causes  of  bad  distribution.  So  Fourier 
fixed  his  eye  upon  the  commune.  The  problem 
he  placed  before  him  was  how  the  mechanical 
advantages  of  large  industries  could  be  secured 
without  lowering  the  workmen  to  the  status  of 
a  mere  machine.  With  that  in  view  he  con- 
structed, on  paper,  his  Phalanstery.  It  was  to 
consist  of  about  three  hundred  families  who 
were  to  co-operate  in  production  with  com- 
monly owned  instruments.  Their  consumption, 
however,  could  be  as  individualistic  as  they 
liked.  Policy  and  economy  might  induce  them 
to  join  in  the  common  meal  but  they  were  not 
to  be  compelled  to  do  so.  Machines  would 
lighten  toil  and  not  supplant  the  workman; 
they  would  therefore  be  freely  introduced  into 
Phalanstery.  Agriculture  would  be  organised  so 
as  to  fit  in  with  other  industry.  Both  sales  and 
purchases  would  be  made  on  a  large  co-opera- 
tive scale;  wealth  would  be  created  and  dis- 
tributed with  an  economy  which  men  had 
never  experienced.  Then  came  the  free  play  of 
Fourier's  imagination.  Theatres,  temples,  gar- 
dens, galleries,  balls,  concerts  were  to  bless  and 
enliven  the  people,  and  the  whole  organisa- 
tion was  to  be  kept  harmonious  because,  in 
Fourier's  view,  a  free  man  will  do  what  is 
rational  and  harmonious.  The  Phalanstery  was 
to  be  the  home,  not  the  prison,  of  human 
nature.  He  argued  that  it  must  work  because 
it  was  harmonious.  Therefore  it  failed.  Fourier 
assumed  that  he  himself  was  the  average  man, 
and  yet  he  had  abandoned  business  because  he 


V 


THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT      201 

had  found  it  dishonest!  He  forgot  that  his 
father  had  punished  him  for  telling  the  truth. 
At  the  end  of  his  life  he  was  patiently  waiting 
— he  had  waited  for  ten  years — convinced  that 
some  honest  wealthy  man  would  knock  at  his 
door  and  supply  him  with  the  money  necessary 
for  making  his  scheme  a  success.  Through 
such  transparent  spirits  the  social  doctrines  of 
the  French  Revolution  were  focused  and  the 
Socialist  theory  was  the  result. 

But  Fourier  was  discussed  and  found 
adherents.  A  sheet  was  published  as  his  organ 
and  experiments  were  made  with  his  scheme. 
In  1837  he  died  at  the  age  of  65,  leaving  his 
strange  mixture  of  innocence  and  insight, 
quackery  and  sagacity,  to  add  its  gleams  of 
light  to  the  dawn  breaking  over  Europe. 

Two  plans  of  association  had  now  been  sub- 
mitted: the  centralised  aristocracy  of  Saint- 
Simon,  a  feeble  child  of  tottering  feudalism 
and  youthful  commerce,  and  the  communal 
self-government  of  Fourier.  Both  were  fan- 
tastic; both  contained  true  suggestions  and 
brought  out  some  lines  of  further  advance. 
Both  helped  to  throw  light  upon  the  problems 
of  poverty  which  were  casting  menacing  shadows 
over  France,  and  both  encouraged  the  stricken 
proletariat  to  agitate,  to  think,  to  combine, 
and  to  hope.  The  superficial  optimism  of  the 
French  Revolution  passed  as  a  mirage,  and  the 
dark  and  confusing  entanglements  of  democ- 
racy and  commercialism  gathered  round  the 
workers.  But  the  new  propaganda  gave  them 
heart.  In  1831  the  workers  of  Lyons  rose  to 
the  cry  "Live  working  or  die  fighting."     As  a 


202      THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

shepherd  gathers  his  sheep  from  the  hills  into 
a  banded  flock,  so  the  Time  Spirit  was  gather- 
ing men  into  a  movement. 

2.  Robert  Owen  and  Chartism. 

I  must  turn  from  France  to  England.  Some 
of  the  boldest  pioneers  of  the  new  movement 
belonged  to  this  country,  for  here  the  evil  side 
of  the  Industrial  Revolution  manifested  itself 
earliesl  and  most  dramatically.  It  was  British 
pamphleteers  who  examined  and  explained  mosl 
carefully    how    the    Industrial    Revolution   led   to 

the  impoverishment  of  the  poor  and  the  exploi- 
tation of  the  worker.  "The  right  to  the  whole 
Produce  of  Labour"  is  a  characteristically 
British  contribution   to  Socialist  economics. 

The  beginnings  of  the  national  movement 
can  be  traced  back  into  the  eighteenth  century 
through  what  were  mainly  political  associations 
meeting  in  taverns  and  obscure  places.  But 
the  British  political  movement  has  always  had 
a  social  purpose  more  or  less  clearly  within 
its  vision,  and  the  theories  of  land  national- 
isation and  of  the  bad  influence  of  machinery, 
published  by  men  like  Thomas  Spence  and 
championed  by  his  followers,  the  Spencean 
Philanthropists,  were  an  early  disturbing  ele- 
ment in  Radical  politics.1  Robert  Owen  im- 
parted both  volume  and  definiteness  to  the 
movement. 

1  Cf.  Harriet  Martineau's  ill-natured  sentence:  "The 
committee  of  the  Spenceans  openly  meddled  with  sundry 
grave  questions  besides  that  of  a  community  in  land;  and 
amongst  other  notable  projects  petitioned  Parliament  to 
do  away  with  machinery." — History  of  the  Peace,  I,  p.  52. 


THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT      203 

Owen  had  the  same  characteristics  as  Saint- 
Simon  and  Fourier,  a  simple-hearted  faith  in 
human  perfectability,  a  transparent  honesty 
of  purpose,  an  absolute  blindness  to  social 
resistance,  an  incapacity  to  appreciate  a  flaw  or 
a  stain  in  his  own  system.  It  was  a  type  of 
character  which  could  influence  only  an  age 
before  society  had  been  studied  scientifically, 
but  which  was  invaluable  for  the  stirring  up 
of  men's  hopes  and  the  launching  upon  the 
world  of  new  ideas  which  could  gain  precision 
and  accuracy  as  they  went  along.  Be  it 
remembered  that  in  these  days  Socialism  had 
to  be  an  inspiration,  a  discovery  of  the  spiritual 
insight;  it  could  not  be  a  scientific  system  of 
criticism,  method  or  construction.  The  know- 
ledge to  make  it  such  was  not  then  available. 

The  work  of  Owen  is  too  well  known  to  need 
more  than  summary  mention  here.  His  birth 
in  1771,  his  rapid  rise  to  fortune,  his  manage- 
ment of  the  New  Lanark  Mills  from  1800,  his 
experiments  in  education,  his  theories  regard- 
ing the  influence  of  environment  on  character, 
his  agitation  in  favour  of  the  state  protecting 
the  physically  and  economically  weak  by  legis- 
lation, the  new  chapter  in  his  life  which  opened 
in  1817  when  he  declared  in  his  memorandum 
to  the  Parliamentary  Committee  which  con- 
sidered the  Poor  Law,  that  misery  was  caused 
by  competition  between  men  and  machinery 
and  that  it  could  be  cured  only  by  the  co-op- 
erative use  of  the  means  of  production  and  their 
subordination  to  the  well-being  of  the  masses, 
the  beginning  of  his  community  experiments  in 
1825,     his    labour    stores    with    their    unique 


204      THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

methods  of  exchange,  and  finally  those  pathetic 
closing  years  unshadowed  by  a  doubt  and  un- 
clouded by  a  thought  of  failure  ending  with  the 
appeal  to  take  him  home  to  die  where  he  first 
saw  the  light,  sum  up  a  life  of  tenderness,  inno- 
cence, single-heartedness,  the  usefulness  but  not 
the  beauty  of  which  has  long  been  recognised. 
Its  activities  were  the  yeast  which  made  the 
whole  body  of  English  social  reform  ferment. 
From  it  came  the  positive  view  of  the  state  as 
a  protector  of  the  weak — and  particularly  our 
code  of  factory  legislation;  the  co-operative 
movement  is  its  direct  fruit;  public  education 
and  trade  unionism  owe  it  much. 

From  the  failure  of  Owen's  schemes  arose 
much  more  good  than  from  the  success  of  other 
men's  schemes.  Since  he  has  lived  it  has  been 
impossible  for  men  to  refuse  to  ponder  over 
great  fundamental  social  changes.  Chartism 
was  one  of  the  first  results  of  Owenism,  and  it 
was  substantially  in  advance  of  Owenism  in 
its  method.  That,  the  discerning  eyes  of  Marx 
and  Engels  saw.  It  was  political.  It  sought 
"no  isles  of  the  blest  in  the  quiet  sea  of  rest." 
It  did  not  trouble  its  head  about  communities; 
it  saw  that  economic  problems  were  national 
not  municipal;  it  saw  further  national  problems 
could  only  be  solved  by  national  machinery. 
That  was  the  philosophy  of  the  Charter.  The 
Reform  of  1832  had  blessed  the  middle  class 
only.  Why  were  the  working  classes  left  out 
in  the  cold?  They  did  not  want  to  be  in  for 
mere  ceremony's  sake.  They  wanted  to  be  in 
because  the  feast  was  spread  inside.  They 
stood  like  the  foolish  virgins  at  a  barred  door, 


V 


THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT      205 

without  having  the  comfort  which  the  foolish 
virgins  had — that  they  themselves  were  to 
blame.  "We  will  get  the  land,"  they  sang 
in  one  of  their  songs,  "only  when  we  get  the 
Charter."  The  Charter  was  a  means  to  an 
end.  In  the  background  of  the  Chartist  mind 
was  land  reform,  reduction  of  factory  hours, 
better  education,  the  control  of  machinery, 
associated  industry.  Chartism  rose  and  fell. 
It  is  said  that  the  workmen  have  always  suffered 
from  dishonest  leaders.  That  does  not  go  to 
the  root  of  the  matter,  and  is  misleading.  The 
Chartist  movement  shows  not  the  dishonest 
leader  but  the  wind-bag  charlatan  leader.  The 
people  have  been  sold,  but  only  after  they  have 
shown  an  incapacity  to  choose  leaders. 

Thus,  in  the  'thirties,  we  find  a  condition 
in  England  similar  to  what  we  have  found  in 
France.  Gropings  after  association,  an  opti- 
mism regarding  the  curability  of  economic 
misery,  an  uncertainty  as  to  method,  a  blind- 
ness as  to  social  resistance,  a  gathering  to- 
gether of  the  people  in  more  or  less  revolution- 
ary companionships,  that  is  what  we  see.  To 
enable  me  to  show  the  next  grouping  of  these 
mobile  and  confused  elements,  I  must  again 
go  abroad — to  Germany  this  time. 

3.  Marx  and  Engels. 

The  French  Revolution  had  wiped  off  the 
map  the  lingering  shadow  of  the  Holy  Roman 
Empire  known  as  the  kingdom  of  Germany, 
and  the  Treaty  of  Vienna  had  painted  in  again 
an  impossible  set  of  German  states  with  Austria 


206      THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

as  their  political  chief,  but  with  Prussia  as  their 
real  head.  From  those  ruins  and  these  impos- 
sibilities, the  spirit  of  nationalism  rose  up.  It 
was  taught  in  the  schools;  it  glowed  like  molten 
metal  from  the  literature  of  the  time.  "Young 
Germany"  heralded  the  March  revolution 
of  1848.  The  spirit  of  nationalism,  hating 
Austria,  turned  to  Prussia  to  be  its  champion. 
In  Prussia,  every  thought  took  a  political  turn. 
The  organisation  of  the  state,  the  power  of  the 
stale,  the  majesty  of  the  state;  politics,  work- 
ing class  combinations,  revolution,  the  idea  of 
corporate  unity,  of  national  wholeness — in  these 
directions  the  minds  of  the  Prussians  and  of 
the  German  nationalists  ran. 

Lassalle  began  first.  Born  in  1825,  he  joined 
Marx  and  his  friends  in  their  revolutionary 
activities  of  1848,  but  his  temperament  pre- 
vented him  from  doing  conspicuous  work  in 
the  organising,  the  moulding,  the  negotiating 
through  which  Socialism  passed  from  the  stages 
i"  which  Saint-Simonianism,  Fourierism  and 
I  enism  had  brought  it.  Lassalle's  work  there- 
fore belongs  to  the  German  movement  alone 
and  was  done  at  a  period  somewhat  later  than 
I  have  now  reached  and  where  I  must  pause, 
as  it  is  the  most  momentous  period  in  the  his- 
tory of  Socialism.  It  belongs  to  the  biography 
of  Karl  Marx,  not  to  that  of  Lassalle. 

Marx  was  a  Jew  and  a  disciple  of  Hegel. 
His  intellect  was  of  the  massive  order  which 
conceives  big  systems,  which  follows  them 
through  their  ramifications,  and  which  at  the 
same  time  is  capable  of  taking  instant  action 
on  the  passing  incidents  of  the  day.     He  was 


THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT      207 

born  in  1818,  in  1841  he  finished  his  university 
studies,  and  next  year  he  embarked  upon  the 
stormy  waters  of  Prussian  democratic  politics. 
This  marks  the  dividing  line  between  the  new 
and  the  old  Socialist  leaders.  The  German 
never  thought  of  Utopian  experiments.  He 
began  with  statecraft,  with  democratic  govern- 
ment, straight  away.  Moreover,  he  had 
received  from  Hegel  a  conception  of  social 
evolution.  He  saw  society  as  a  whole.  Insti- 
tutions were  historical  products,  not  the  benevo- 
lent, or  malevolent,  work  of  men's  hands.  He 
was  not  always  consistent  on  this  point,  how- 
ever, although  it  is  this  view  which  was 
embodied  in  his  wider  generalisations.  The 
misery  around  him  could  be  cured  only  by  social 
change.  Prussia  became  too  hot  for  him  and 
he  sought  security  in  Paris.  Here  he  came  in 
contact  with  the  Socialist  movement,  such  as 
it  then  was,  and  Proudhon  became  his  com- 
panion. 

But  Proudhon  was  a  Frenchman  and 
belonged  to  the  old  generation  of  utopists. 
As  he  himself  confessed  towards  his  end,  the 
greater  part  of  his  work  consisted  of  unsys- 
tematised  gropings  after  general  laws  and  con- 
ceptions, and  he  inherited  to  the  full  the  legacy 
of  simple-minded  optimism  which  the  French 
Revolution  left  as  a  dowry  to  two  generations 
of  French  social  reformers  and  thinkers.  And 
yet  he  had  moved  towards  the  border-line  of 
the  new  epoch,  for  one  of  the  points  of  dis- 
agreement between  himself  and  the  schools  of 
Saint-Simon  and  Fourier  was  that  these  latter 
believed   too   much  in  sudden  transformations. 


208      THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

But  he  had  come  to  see  in  governments  nothing 
but  tyrannies,  and  thus  he  forbade  himself 
from  ever  joining  the  ranks  of  the  newer  move- 
ment. It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  he 
and  the  systematic  Marx  fell  out,  and  it  was 
two  Germans,  Marx  and  Engels,  and  not  a 
German  and  a  Frenchman,  who  opened  the 
new  volume  of  the  history  of  the  Socialist  move- 
ment. 

The  preliminary  preparation  was  complete 
The  economic  theory  of  Socialism  was  becoming 
pretty  clear,  political  means  were  being  thrust 
upon  the  workers  of  both  Great  Britain  and 
Germany,  Utopian  communities  had  failed  abso- 
lutely. Two  things  were  required.  The  vague 
uncertainties  of  aim  and  means  had  to  lie 
Bwepl  aside,  the  moral  inanities  of  some  of  the 
schools  had  to  be  suppressed,  the  mind  of 
ialism  had  to  be  made  definite.  That  was 
the  first  thing.  The  second  was  to  place  the 
whole  movement  on  a  political  footing  and  to 
make  it  understand  that  it  was  a  period  in 
social  evolution  and  not  merely  a  dream  of 
ingenious  and  kind-hearted  men. 

This  Marx  and  Engels  did,  and  their  first 
great  act  towards  that  end  was  the  publication 
of  the  Communist  Manifesto  just  before  the 
Revolution  of  1848.  Earlier  in  the  year,  Marx 
had  published  a  scathing  criticism  of  Proud- 
hon,  and  hot  foot  upon  that  came  the  clarion 
call  of  the  Manifesto  commanding  all  the 
workers  of  the  world  to  unite  to  end  their 
misery.  Amidst  the  most  heart-rending  poverty 
and  destitution  in  London,  Marx  strove  to  com- 
plete his  work  on  both  its  intellectual  and  its 


THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT      209 

political  sides.  Having  to  live  sometimes  on 
the  proceeds  which  the  pawnbroker  handed 
over  the  counter,  this  brave  and  unbendable 
spirit  wrote  what  has  been  called  "the  Bible 
of  Socialism,"  Das  Kapital.  He  died  in  1883, 
and  his  body  rests  on  the  slope  of  Highgate 
Cemetery  looking  Londonwards.  Engels  died 
in  1895  and  his  ashes,  according  to  his  wish, 
were  scattered  on  the  sea. 

How  did  these  men  perform  their  work? 
They  started  as  Hegelians  of  the  Left — pupils 
of  the  great  philosopher,  who,  whilst  never  able 
to  emancipate  themselves  from  the  Hegelian 
method,  had  thrown  off  the  Hegelian  idealism. 
If  the  workers  were  to  be  emancipated  at  all, 
they  felt  it  was  to  be  by  a  grim  struggle  against 
the  classes  which  were  exploiting  them.  They 
took  the  proletariat  up  to  a  high  mountain 
and  showed  it  the  wide  panorama  of  progress. 
At  every  stage  class  was  in  conflict  with  class; 
and  that  lesson  was  soon  learned.  It  dispelled 
all  sorts  of  delusions  about  idealistic  methods. 
Then  another  lesson  was  taught.  The  motive 
of  the  clashings  was  economic.  History  was 
not  to  be  interpreted  by  spiritual  and  rational 
impulses  but  by  economic  appetites.  Thus 
idealism  received  another  deadly  blow.  Social- 
ism thus  hardened,  interpreted  as  the  grand 
final  stage  of  the  struggle  between  the  classes, 
appealed  with  new  definiteness  and  new  force 
to  the  masses.  Its  vagueness  vanished.  It 
became  a  cause  which  the  meanest  intellect 
could  grasp  and  in  which  the  humblest  worker 
could  play  a  part.  The  reign  of  the  bourgeoisie 
was    challenged    at    every    point.     The    wage- 


210      THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

earner  felt  his  common  interest  and  was  taught 
his  common  strength.  In  his  various  nation- 
alities he  gathered  together  into  a  common 
camp;  he  looked  across  the  boundaries  of  his 
nations  and  found  the  comradeship  of  men 
bending  under  a  lot  similar  to  his  own;  and  the 
old  clarion  call  came  upon  his  ears:  "Wage 
workers  of  the  whole  world!  Unite!"  Marx 
worked  for  immediate  practical  effects  and  he 
secured  them.  He  sacrificed  some  of  the  intel- 
lectual accuracy  of  the  Socialist  case,  but  he 
made  the  Socialist  movement. 


4.  Marxism  and  Revisionism. 

'  I  must  emphasise  what  Marx  actually  did. 
He  contributed  nothing  to  Socialism  as  a 
theory  except  in  the  sense  that  a  gardener 
selects  from  a  mass  of  herbage  those  plant-; 
which  are  of  use,  cultivates  them,  improves 
their  strain,  and  produces  them  for  the  world 
to  admire.  This  work  is  neither  mean  nor  of 
;i  M-eondary  value.  "As  to  Socialism,"  says  one 
of  his  most  recent  critics,  "in  relation  to  the 
future  organisation  of  society.  Marx  has  well- 
nigh  not  alluded  to  it."  l  Marx's  reply  would 
probably  have  been  that  he  left  such  vain  specu- 
lations to  utopists.  He  explained  the  mechanism 
of  capitalism;  he  explained  historical  evolution; 
he  showed  from  both  explanations  the  necessity 
of  Socialism;  he  formed  the  army,  and  gave  it 
the  determination  which  was  to  bring  Socialism 
into  existence.     He  made  many  mistakes,  both 

1  Dr.  M.  Tugan-Baranowsky :  Modern  Socialism. 


THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT      211 

in  stating  his  theories  and  in  forecasting  events, 
but  they  were  the  mistakes  of  the  man  of  action 
who  had  to  do  a  certain  definite  piece  of  work, 
and  his  errors  helped  him.  None  of  them 
vitiated  the  value  of  his  labours  or  took  a  jot 
away  from  their  utility.  The  Socialist  move- 
ment will  return  to  idealism,  for,  though  some- 
times an  unrecognised  power,  idealism  has 
always  existed  in  Socialism.  But  in  Marx's 
time  the  great  need  was  to  organise  the  move- 
ment and  engraft  it  upon  the  mind  of  the 
masses,  to  give  it  political  form,  to  gather  the 
democracy  under  its  banners  and  start  them 
on  their  march.  That  done  Marx  can  be 
revised.  The  new  problems  which  continue  to 
face  this  army  as  it  moves  onwards  necessitate 
frequent  references  to  first  principles,  modi- 
fications of  old  dogmas,  withdrawals  of  old 
forecasts.  The  goal  remains,  for  it  is  the 
creation  of  such  self-evident  truths  as  this: 
That  he  who  controls  the  economic  conditions 
of  liberty,  controls  liberty  itself,  and  that 
association  is  better  than  separation,  and  co- 
operation than  competition.  But  the  path  is 
trod  by  succeeding  generations  for  diverse 
reasons.  One  generation  follows  it  because  it 
is  harassed  by  misery,  another,  because  it  is 
illumined  by  reason;  and  these  diverse  motives 
exist  side  by  side  in  the  movement,  their  relative 
strength  constantly  fluctuating. 

Thus,  to-day  we  have  what  is  called  the 
revisionist  movement — which,  however,  is  not 
always  so  much  a  departure  from  Marx  as  from 
Marxians.  I  have  shown  elsewhere  in  this 
book   why   I   do   not   accept   some   of   Marx's 


212      THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

explanations — for,  after  all,  he  was  a  commen- 
tator on  Socialism,  not  the  inspired  instru- 
ment through  which  the  Socialist  faith  was 
revealed.  In  his  book  the  English  title  of 
which  is  Evolutionary  Socialism ■ — the  book 
which  originated  the  revisionist  movement  in 
Germany — Mr.  Bernstein  parts  company  with 
Marxists  on  the  following  points  amongst 
others.  He  denies  that  there  is  an  imminent 
prospect  of  the  breakdown  of  bourgeois  society; 
he  asserts  that  in  the  working  of  capitalism 
there  is  not  a  decreasing  number  of  capitalists, 
all  of  them  large,  but  that  there  is  an  increas- 
ing number  of  all  kinds  of  capitalists;  he  rejects 
the  dogma  that  in  every  department  of  industry 
concentration  is  proceeding  with  equal  rapidity, 
and  ihe  challenges  this  with  special  reference 
to  agriculture.  He  also  emphasises  the  fact 
that  the  leaven  of  Socialism  is  now  permeat- 
ing the  capitalist  lump,  and  that  therefore 
Socialist  organisations  must  work  as  trans- 
forming factors  in  society,  and  not  only  as 
revolutionary  agencies.  Marx,  in  his  earlier 
yean  (at  any  rate  up  to  1871,  when  the  Paris 
Commune  somewhat  modified  his  view)  con- 
sidered that  the  conquest  of  political  power 
by  the  democracy  was  to  be  the  signal  of 
revolution;  now  great  sections  of  the  Socialist 
movement  hold  that  that  conquest  is  to  be  the 
occasion  for  transformation.  Mr.  Bernstein  also 
modifies  the  Marxian  view  of  the  materialist 
conception  of  history  and  of  economic  necessity, 
of  the  class  war  and  of   value.     And   he  does 

1  Published  in  the  Socialist  Library  by  the  Independent 
Labour  Party. 


THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT      213 

this  whilst  continuing  to  proclaim  himself  a 
Socialist,  because  he  takes  the  true  scientific 
view  that  every  dogma  and  every  theory  is 
subject  to  the  law  of  evolution  as  well  as  society 
itself. 

5.  Lassalle  and  the  German  Party. 

I  must  now  outline  the  growth  of  the  move- 
ment itself,  beginning  with  Germany,  which 
deservedly  occupies  the  premier  place  in  such 
a  history. 

It  was  not  until  1862  that  Lassalle's  activities 
were  of  any  importance  to  the  Socialist  move- 
ment. The  political  reaction  had  begun  in 
Prussia  as  the  nationalist  forces  gathered 
themselves  together  for  that  struggle  which 
only  ended  with  the  French  war  and  the 
establishment  of  the  German  empire.  The 
Liberals  who  then  ruled  Prussia,  and  who  were 
about  to  be  swept  by  Bismarck  away  into 
insignificance,  "hoist  by  their  own  petard  of 
nationalism"  which  carried  militarism  in  its 
womb,  had  opened  their  pusillanimous  policy 
of  "standing  where  they  were."  Lassalle  sepa- 
rated from  them,  declared  that  it  was  folly 
to  prat  about  things  which  were  unreal  and 
verbal,  and  appealed  to  Prussia  to  take  its 
stand  upon  the  actual  facts  and  go  back  upon 
democratic  rule.  The  fires  of  Lassalle's  nature 
were  again  ablaze.  In  1862  he  delivered  a 
lecture  which  was  nearly  as  epoch-making  as 
the  Communist  Manifesto,  and  it  was  published 
under  the  title  of  The  Working  Men's  Pro- 
gramme.   Its   purpose   was    to   show   that   the 


214      THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

Prussian  working  men  had  now  to  unite  for 
political  purposes.  The  police  paid  attention 
to  both  the  lecture  and  the  orator  who,  after 
a  trial  and  an  appeal,  was  sentenced  to  pay  a 
fine   of   about    £15. 

Events  then  happened  which  were  in  some 
ways  curiously  like  what  occurred  in  our  own 
country  shortly  after  1880  when  the  workers 
began  to  lose  confidence  in  the  Liberal  Party. 
The  working  men  of  Leipzig,  having  left 
Liberalism,  called  a  Labour  congress.  To  this 
Lassalle  sent  an  Open  Letter  in  which  be  appealed 
to  the  workers  to  form  a  political  party  with 
social  aims;  be  stated  the  Iron  Law  expressing 
the  tendency  of  wages  to  fall  to  the  ban-  subsist- 
ence level  and  nothing  more;  and  he  advo- 
cated the  establishment  by  state  capital  of 
self-governing  productive  associations  in  which 
every  workman  was  to  get  the  full  product  of  his 
labour.  The  Congress  adopted  his  proposals, 
and    he   addressed    a    few    u'reat    mcetin  The 

Universal  German  Working  Men's  Association 
was  farmed  at  Leipzig  on  May  2/>rd,  1863.  It 
made  one  demand — universal  suffrage.  A  work- 
ing class  social  programme  was  -<>  much  decora- 
tive effort  unless  the  working  classes  had  the 
vote.  The  German  movement  was  begun.  The 
melodramatic  ending  of  its  leader  and  hero  in 
186-1,  struck  it  like  a  storm,  and  when  the  blast 
was  over  it  was  found  that  the  organisation 
was  left  in  a  bad  way.  It  had  no  leaders,  no 
monev,  and  no  coherence. 

Immediately  after  the  founding  of  Lassalle's 
organisation  another  event  happened,  paralleled 
also    in   our   later    British    experience.     Liberal- 


V 


THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT      215 

Labour  associations  were  formed,  partly  in 
opposition  to  Socialism,  but  partly  also  in  oppo- 
sition to  the  growing  dominance  of  Prussia, 
and  they  were  therefore  strongest  outside 
Prussia.  As  a  member  of  one  of  these,  August 
Bebel  first  won  his  spurs.  But  the  organisa- 
tions speedily  drifted  away  from  Liberalism 
where,  from  the  very  nature  of  the  case,  they 
could  have  no  abiding  place.  The  union  of 
these  associations  declared  first  of  all  for  uni- 
versal suffrage;  in  1868  it  gave  in  its  adhesion 
to  Marx's  organisation,  the  International,  and 
in  the  following  year  at  Eisenach  it  formed 
itself  into  the  Social  Democratic  Working  Men's 
Party.  The  two  German  organisations  then 
came  to  be  known  as  the  Lassalle  and  the 
Eisenach  parties.  The  one  was  Prussian,  the 
other  was  South  German  and  Saxon.  This 
division  in  German  Socialism  curiously  enough 
survives  to  this  day.  Both  sections  were  repre- 
sented in  the  Parliament  of  the  North  German 
Confederation,1  but  disagreed  as  to  policy. 
They  agreed  in  advocating  a  peace  with  France 
without  annexation  of  territory,  and  their 
members  were  sent  to  prison.  With  the  peace 
came  a  desire  to  join  the  two  bodies.  In  Lieb- 
knecht  and  Bebel  the  Eisenach  party  had 
leaders,  the  Lassalle  party  had  none.  At  Gotha 
in  1875  they  joined  hands,  and  formed  the 
Socialist  Working  Men's  Party  of  Germany. 
The  united  movement  bounded  forward,  and 
the  authorities  made  up  their  minds  to  hamper 

1  The  first  electoral  successes  were  won  in  Germany  in 
1867,  when  eight  members  were  returned. 


216      THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

it.  Two  attempts  made  upon  the  Emperor's 
life  in  1878  gave  them  their  chance,  and  after 
an  appeal  to  the  country  legislation  to  repress 
Socialism  was  carried.  Newspapers  were  for- 
feited, meetings  were  prohibited,  the  organisa- 
tion was  paralysed.  The  effect  was  to  throw 
the  people  back  upon  themselves.  They  acted 
without  organisation.  Each  man  took  upon 
himself  the  responsibility  of  finding  out  what 
he  ought  to  do.  Literature  was  smuggled  into 
the  country,  the  law  was  got  round  in  many 
ways;  at  election  after  election  the  Socialist 
vote  increased.  The  an  Li-Socialist  laws  and  the 
social  reform  legislation  of  Bismarck  had  both 
failed  to  remove  the  menace  of  red  working- 
class  politics,  and  in  1890  the  repressive  policy 
came  to  an  end.  Since  then  there  have  been 
changes  in  organisation,  there  have  been  ups 
ami  downs,  there  have  been  internal  contro- 
versies— particularly  as  regards  parliamentary 
policy  and  the  relation  of  the  Socialist  parties 
in  the  legislatures  to  other  parties,  but  the 
history  of  Social  Democracy  in  Germany  has 
been  a  steady  advance  onwards. 

The  maximum  vote  of  the  party  before  the 
Gotha  union  had  been  352,000  in  1874;  in 
1877  it  was  493,000;  it  dropped  during  the 
first  years  of  repression,  but  rose  from  1884 
reaching  1,427,000  in  1890,  2,107,000  in  1898, 
3,010,000  in  1903,  and  3,258,968  in  1907.  Its 
1903  vote  elected  81  members  to  the  Reichstag; 
that  of  1907,  however,  only  elected  43.  It  is 
on  the  upgrade  again,  and  the  election  of  1911 
bids  fair  to  be  a  record  one  for  the  party. 

In    connection    with    the    German    Socialist 


V 


THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT      217 

movement  one  has  to  observe  a  special  feature 
in  German  politics.  Individualism  as  a  politi- 
cal system  never  took  root  in  the  German 
mind.  German  public  life  was  too  much 
influenced  by  German  philosophy  for  that  to 
happen.  Consequently,  state  activity  has 
always  been  assumed — even  by  the  most  anti- 
Socialist  chancellors  and  municipal  authorities 
— as  legitimate.  We  inherited  from  our 
Liberalism  a  suspicion  of  the  state;  the 
inheritance  of  modern  Germany  was  a  trust 
in  the  state.  Thus  German  Socialism  has 
been  an  intellectual  power,  even  when  politi- 
cally it  has  appeared  to  be  impotent. 

6.  The  French  Party. 

The  French  Party  has  its  tap  root  touching 
the  Revolution,  and  it  grew  up  through  the 
schools,  like  Saint-Simonism,  to  which  I  have 
already  referred.  The  revolutionary  idealism 
of  France  finds  the  yoke  of  party  galling  and 
hard  to  bear.  It  blazed  up  in  1848,  and  again 
in  1871,  and  in  both  cases  the  flame  was 
stamped  out  by  the  ruthless  foot  of  the 
military.  The  hero  of  1848  was  Louis  Blanc; 
the  hero  of  1871  was  the  people.  Upon  the 
heads  of  both,  the  prejudice  that  has  written 
so  much  of  our  histories  has  put  the  crown 
of  the  fool  and  the  knave,  and  no  heads,  in 
reality,  are  less  justly  decorated  by  that  symbol. 

The  national  workshops  of  the  first  revolu- 
tion were  started  and  managed  contrary  to 
Louis  Blanc's  advice,  and  in  a  spirit  antago- 
nistic to  him.     Yet  upon  his  back  the  burden 


218      THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

of  their  ludicrous  failure  had  been  placed. 
The  scenes  of  popular  riot,  bloodshed  and  dis- 
order which  compose  the  lurid  picture  generally 
painted  to  represent  the  Commune  are  little 
more  than  visions  of  the  prejudiced  and 
frightened  imagination.  Probably  never  did  an 
army  in  occupation  rule  a  city  with  more  mercy 
and  calmness  than  the  communists  ruled  Paris, 
with  their  ftflsaaains  thundering  at  their  gates. 
The  suppression  of  peaceful  Radicalism  in  Great 
Britain  in  the  days  of  Pitt  was  attended  by 
more  blundering  cruelty  and  wanton  persecu- 
tion than  can  be  crowded  into  those  terrible 
days  in  Paris  by  any  historian,  however  pre- 
judiced, who  slicks  to  the  facts.  After  the 
Commune  the  Socialist  movement  in  France 
lay  like  a  land  that  had  been  crossed  by  fire. 
Hut  a  few  workers  soon  came  together  again. 
The  authorities  -truck  at  them  and  scattered 
them.     For  a  while  Socialism  was  baffled. 

But  Jules  Guesde  returned  from  his  exile 
in  Geneva,  whither  his  communist  activites 
had  driven  him,  founded  VEgalite  in  1877, 
struck  at  the  Anarchists  who  were  busy  in 
France  at  the  time,  preached  Marxism,  and 
the  trade  union  congress  which  met  at  Lyons 
in  1878  resolved  to  call  an  international 
gathering  of  working  men  at  Paris  in  the 
following  year.  The  gathering  was  suppressed, 
and  police  barred  the  doors  of  the  hall  in  the 
faces  of  the  delegates.  This  only  helped  the 
French  movement.  Recruits  came  in  fast;  the 
trade  union  movement  became  more  sympa- 
thetic. A  representative  gathering  of  working 
men   held   in    Marseilles   in    1879    adopted   the 


V 


THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT      219 

name  of  the  Socialist  Labour  Congress.  It 
was  wildly  revolutionary,  but  the  programme  it 
accepted  was  drafted  by  Guesde  and  Lafargue, 
who  was  Karl  Marx's  son-in-law.  Next  year 
the  final  struggle  between  Socialists  and  trade 
unionists  of  the  old  school  took  place.  The 
former  were  apparently  worsted,  but  the  latter 
had  no  determination,  no  zeal,  and  no  cause, 
so  they  could  make  no  use  of  their  victory. 
Socialism  marched  gaily  along. 

But  there  was  weakness  in  the  movement, 
and  it  was  shown  in  the  elections  of  1881.  Why 
were  they  disappointing?  One  group  gave  one 
answer,  another  gave  another.  The  leaders  set 
upon  each  other,  and  the  movement  split  into 
two  camps  at  St.  Etienne  next  year.  The 
division  was  between  the  Possibilists  (those 
who  were  willing  to  approach  Socialism  through 
Socialistic  reforms),  led  by  Paul  Brousse,  who 
has  been  Mayor  of  Paris  since,  and  the 
Impossibilists  (those  who  anticipated  a  revo- 
lution and  a  more  or  less  sudden  break  with 
the  past),  led  by  Jules  Guesde.  Strict  Marxism 
was  in  reality  the  rock  upon  which  the  party 
trashed.  Still,  the  French  workmen  had  not 
enough  camps,  and  a  definite  movement  against 
parliamentary  action  was  begun  and  the  General 
Federation  of  Labour  formed.  The  blood  of 
revolution  jumped  through  the  French  veins, 
and  the  half-dozen  different  groups  into  which 
the  movement  very  quickly  split  appeared  to 
be  necessary  to  suit  all  dispositions.  The  two 
most  important,  however,  were  the  so-called 
Impossibilists,  led  by  Guesde,  and  the  Inde- 
pendents, in  whose  ranks  were  several  brilliant 


220      THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

professional  men  like  Jaures  and  Millerand. 
Jaures  had  boon  olocted  to  the  Chamber  as  a 
Radical  in  1885,  but  was  dofoatod  in  1889 
when  he  returned  to  his  professional  chair.  In 
1893  he  appeared  as  a  Socialist  candidate,  and 
has  been  in  the  Chamber  ever  since. 

The  elections  of  1893  sent  forty  Socialists 
to  the  Chamber  of  Deputies.1  Suddenly  over 
the  political  horizon  blazed  the  menace  of  the 
Dreyfus  affair.  The  Guesdists  Bald,  "It  is 
nothing  to  us";  Jaures  said,  "It  is  every- 
thing." Civil  war  again  broke  out  in  the  party. 
Jaures  supported  Millerand  when  he  joined  the 
Waldeck-Rouflocmi  Ministry  (1890)  in  order 
to  expunge  the  Dreyfus  blunder  from  French 
hi-tory.  The  battle  between  the  camps  raged 
with  fury  until  the  International  Socialist  Con- 
gress sitting  in  Amsterdam  in  1003  proclaimed 
peace.  The  groups  united,  the  few  individuals 
remaining  outside  soon  ceased  to  count,  and 
to-day  the  only  division  in  the  working-class 
movement  in  Prance  is  the  Socialist  Party  on  the 
one  hand,  and  the  anarchist  General  Federation 
of  Labour  on  the  other. 

During  the  Walt  leek-Rousseau  ministry  when 
Millerand  was  Minister  of  Commerce,  several 
measures  of  Socialistic  significance  were  passed 
and  the  Socialist  influence  on  the  government 
was  considerable.  But  on  the  resignation  of 
the  Premier  (1002),  when  the  work  of  the  min- 
istry had  been  accomplished,  the  union  of  the 
Socialists  with  the  Radical  and  Liberal  sec- 
tions came  to  an  end.  A  few  years  later  (1906) 
when  France  had  to  face  the  problem  of    the 

1  The  first  electoral  victories  were  in  1887. 


THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT      221 

ecclesiastical  corporations,  the  government  of 
the  day  had  once  more  to  lean  upon  the 
Socialists  for  help.  It  was  a  Socialist  who  was 
put  in  charge  of  the  bill  which  settled  these 
corporations.  Later  on  (1909)  this  Socialist, 
M.  Briand,  became  premier  and  held  office 
till  1911.  But  perhaps  partly  owing  to  the 
opposition  within  the  Socialist  ranks  to  men 
who  have  become  too  closely  identified  with 
ministries,  and  also,  perhaps,  partly  owing  to 
changes  which  have  crept  over  the  men  who 
have  joined  ministries,  ex-ministers  have  ceased 
to  be  members  of  the  Socialist  party.  The 
experience  is  the  subject  of  heated  controversy 
in  the  French  party,  in  which  the  opinion  at 
the  present  moment  is  strongly  hostile  to  blocs 
— or,  in  other  words,  to  co-operate  with  govern- 
ments as  was  the  case  during  the  Waldeck- 
Rousseau  ministry. 

I  can  instance  the  growth  of  Socialism  in 
France  as  I  did  with  reference  to  Germany  by 
giving  the  votes  it  has  polled  at  elections.  In 
1893,  000,000  votes  were  polled;  in  1898, 
790,000;  in  190-2,  900,000;  in  1906,  1,120,000; 
and  in  1910,  1,400,000. 


7.   The  Italian  Party. 

Italy  is  even  more  anarchist  and  revolu- 
tionary than  France,  and  until  middle-class 
and  professional  men  put  themselves  at  the 
head  of  the  Socialist  movement  there,  anarch- 
ism played  havoc  with  Italian  working-class 
organisation.  Not  until  1891,  when  Turati, 
a  well-known  lawyer  of   Milan,   put  his  hand 


222      THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

to  the  plough,  was  much  done  to  bring  Italian 
Socialism  on  to  the  lines  of  Socialism  in  other 
European  countries.  Crispi's  copying  of  Bis- 
marck's method  of  repression  helped  the  move- 
ment greatly,  and  the  corrupt  state  of  Italian 
politics  and  the  incompetence  of  Italian  Liberal- 
ism gave  powerful  assistance.  The  Italian 
movement  was  therefore  composed  of  two 
wings,  one  practical  and  political  and  the  other 
anarchist.  The  former  attracted  to  it  some 
of  the  best  intellects,  and  most  distinguished 
professional  men  in  Italy — Ferri  and  Lombroso, 
GabrieUe  d'Annunxio  and  De  Amicis;  doctors 
and  scientists,  professors  and  lawyers.  The 
conflicts  between  the  government  and  the 
Socialists  led  to  the  proclamation  of  a  general 
strike  which  resulted  in  riots  and  bloodshed 
in  1903-4,  and  as  the  storm  struck  Socialism 
the  leaders  quarrelled  and  blamed  each  other 
for  the  hurricane.  Since  then,  the  party  has 
been  unable  to  right  itself.  Secessions  from  its 
ranks  have  taken  place,  and  at  the  moment 
it  is  rent  with  internal  disputes  carried  on 
between  the  sections.  Reformists  who  are  will- 
ing to  CO-operate  with  any  party  moving  in 
the  right  directions,  syndicalists  who  direct 
attention  to  the  need  of  more  trade  union 
organisation  and  are  rather  anarchist  in  their 
depreciation  of  parliamentary  action,  integrali-ts 
who  sit  on  the  fence  between  the  two  and  talk 
vainly  and  impotently  of  union  between  them, 
form  the  three  great  camps  of  Italian  Socialism. 


V 


THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT      223 


8.  The  Belgian  Party. 

The  Socialist  movement  in  Belgium  is  as 
well  knit  "as  that  in  Italy  is  disjointed.  It  has 
the  financial  help  of  what  is  perhaps  the  most 
successful  form  of  co-operation  in  the  world; 
it  has  a  solid  trade-union  movement  behind 
it;  it  is  capably  led  by  Vandervelde;  it  has 
been  singularly  free  from  the  criticisms  of 
"  impossibilists "  which  have  proved  to  be  such 
a  drag  upon  Socialism  elsewhere. 

The  International  Association  had  a  strong 
grip  on  the  country,  but  on  its  dissolution, 
disruption  came  upon  the  Belgian  working- 
class  movement.  But  by  and  by  a  new  start 
was  made,  and  in  1885  the  Belgian  Labour 
Tarty  was  formed.  It  has  been  pointed  out 
often  that  this  party  is  very  much  like  the 
present  British  Labour  Party.  It  declined  to 
call  itself  Socialist  though  such  was  its  inspira- 
tion; it  was  a  union  of  workmen  and  of  those 
who  took  a  stand  on  economic  grounds  with 
wage-earners,  to  voice  the  needs  of  the  workers. 
Of  the  Beligan  movement  Vandervelde  has 
written  "From  the  English,  it  adopted  self- 
help  and  free  association  principally  under  the 
co-operative  form;  from  the  Germans,  political 
tactics  and  fundamental  doctrines  which  were 
for  the  first  time  expounded  in  the  Communist 
Manifesto;  and  from  the  French,  it  took  its 
idealist  tendencies,  its  integral  conception  of 
Socialism  considered  as  the  continuation  of 
revolutionary  philosophy  and  as  a  new  reli- 
gion   continuing     and     fulfilling     Christianity." 


224      THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

The  Belgian  movement  is  severely  practical. 
Associated  with  it  is  an  enormous  co-operative 
movement;  it  is  always  willing  to  strike  a  blow 
for  trade  unionism;  it  is  in  the  closest  alliance 
with  the  Liberals  in  their  opposition  to  the 
clerical  reactionary  government  and  in  their 
demand  for  universal  suffrage.  The  Conserva- 
tive government  majority,  in  spite  of  the 
undemocratic  electoral  machinery  of  Belgium, 
has  been  brought  down  to  vanishing  point. 
WheD  it  disappears  a  difficult  parliamentary 
situation  will  be  created  for  the  Socialists  as 
they  then,  either  as  an  independent  factor 
without  representation  in  the  Cabinet  or  as  a 
co-operating  wing  with  representation  in  the 
Cabinet,  will  have  to  keep  a  coalition  govern- 
ment in  office. 


9.   The  Party  in  America  and  other  Countries. 

Distracted  with  revolutionary  impulses  and 
with  the  political  unsettlement  around, 
Socialism  lias  taken  only  a  fitful  foothold  in 
places  like  Russia,  Spain,  Portugal  and  the 
minor  European  States. 

The  Russian  movement  is  of  peculiar 
interest  and  is  in  many  respects  sui  generis. 
The  communal  psychology  of  the  Russian 
which  he  has  inherited  from  the  social  organ- 
isation of  serfdom  and  communism  in  which 
he  lived  till  but  a  generation  or  so  ago,  made 
him  but  little  susceptible  to  worldly  goods  and 
materialist  enticements,  and  when  the  political 

1  The  Party  secured  representation  in  1894  for  the  first 
time. 


V 


THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT      225 

freedom  of  the  rest  of  Europe  began  to  agitate 
the  minds  of  the  intellectuals  of  Russia,  a 
movement  partly  Liberal  and  partly  Socialist 
began.  It  found  expression  first  of  all  in  novels 
like  Tchernychevsky's  What  is  to  be  done?  and 
finally  bred  Nihilism  in  politics,  and  a  revival 
in  literature.  The  untamable  Bakunin,  the 
courtly  Herzen  and  the  chivalrous  Lavroff 
were  in  exile,  but  moved  amongst  the  Russian 
students  whom  the  revival  in  learning  was 
sending  to  universities  in  France  and  Switzer- 
land. The  movement  for  educating  the  peasant 
and  for  idealising  him  began,  and  this,  being 
suppressed  by  a  frightened  government,  inaug- 
urated terrorism,  in  the  dark  and  stormy  lanes 
of  which  the  Socialist  movement  proper  lost 
itself.  Meanwhile,  Russia  became  more  and 
more  industrial,  and  Socialism  again  appeared 
in  the  land.  During  the  final  decade  of  the  last 
century  trade  unionism  of  a  Social  Democratic 
type  attracted  great  numbers  of  workers  in  the 
larger  industrial  centres,  and  in  addition  to 
that,  branches  of  the  Social  Democratic  Party 
— originally  composed  of  Russian  exiles  in 
Geneva,  Paris  and  London — were  formed  in 
Russia.  \Yhen  political  liberty  appeared  to 
be  coming  through  the  Duma,  the  various 
Socialist  groups  united  and  at  one  time  there 
were  about  one  hundred  Socialist  and  Labour 
members  sitting  in  this  mock  parliament.  For 
the  time  being  reaction  is  again  supreme,  and 
persecution,  imprisonment,  exile  and  death  have 
driven  the  movement  underground. 

In     Finland,     eighty-seven     Socialists     were 
elected  to  the  Diet  at  the  end  of  1910,  show- 


226      THE  SOCLVLIST  MOVEMENT 

ing  a  gain  of  one  seat.  In  the  northern  coun- 
tries Socialism  is  strong  and  well  organised, 
and  is  ably  represented  in  the  parliaments; 
in  Austria,  keen  racial  conflicts  have  tried  it 
sorely,  but  when  universal  suffrage  was  granted 
in  1906,  it  returned  eighty -seven  members  to 
Parliament  and  secured  well  over  1,000,000 
votes.  Switzerland  lias  had  a  Social  Demo- 
cratic Party  since  1888,  but  this  nominally 
democratic  country  has  been  notorious  for  its 
repressive  measures  and  its  unjust  polities. 
Though  the  Swiss  Socialist  vote  is  equal  to  a 
representation  of  twenty-five  members  in  Par- 
liament, it  has  only  secured  six  seats. 

Japan,  not  to  be  outdone  in  any  Western 
way,  has  had  a  Socialist  Party  since  1901, 
severely  Marxian  in  its  spirit.  It  has  been 
Frequently  .suppressed  by  the  authorities,  and 
latterly  the  leaders  have  been  tried  on  capital 
charges  and  sonic  of  them  executed.  Japan 
is  apparently  to  emulate  the  political  methods 
of  its  late  enemy,  Russia.  Argentine  and  Chili 
have  also  Socialist  organisations  and  have  been 
represented  at  International  Socialist  Con- 
gresses. Australia  has  both  a  Labour  and 
a  Socialist  Party,  the  former  strongly  Social- 
istic though  the  economic  basis  of  some  of  its 
demands  is  strikingly  insecure,  the  latter  Marxist 
of  the  rather  impossibilist  school;  New  Zealand 
has  avoided  a  serious  Socialist  Party  because 
Mr.  Seddon  led  Liberalism  into  the  Socialistic 
fold.  South  Africa  has  a  small  but  vigorous 
Labour  and  Socialist  movement  which  finds 
difficulty  in  making  headway  against  the  active 
financial     powers     that     have    dominated     the 


V 


THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT      227 

Colony  on  the  one  hand  and  the  conservative 
agricultural  interests  that  have  controlled  it 
on  the  other.  Western  Canada  has  an  aggres- 
sive Marxian  section  represented  in  the  legis- 
lature; "Middle  and  Eastern  Canada  has  the 
nucleus  of  an  organisation  somewhat  like  our 
own  Labour  Party  and  Independent  Labour 
Party,  and  Alberta  has  returned  one  Socialist 
member  to  its  new  Parliament. 

The  movement  in  America  is  rapidly  assuming 
importance.  At  first  inspired  by  foreign  advo- 
cates and  foreign  thought,  it  was  hard  and 
dogmatic,  and  was  of  no  account;  but  latterly 
owing  to  the  rise  of  a  powerful  revisionist 
school  with  Milwaukee — which  it  captured 
municipally  in  1910 — as  its  headquarters,  it  has 
won  adherents  in  every  state,  and  in  the  state 
elections  of  the  fall  of  1910,  it  registered  700,000 
votes  and  won  its  first  seat  in  the  House  of 
Representatives  at  Washington. 

First  of  all,  the  new  land  of  America 
attracted  the  utopists  who  journeyed  thither 
to  found  their  New  Harmonies  and  their 
Phalansteries,  but  one  after  another  of  these 
died  out  and  even  the  most  successful  left  no 
mark  upon  the  public  life  or  political  activities 
of  the  country.  Later  on,  many  Socialist  exiles 
from  Europe  sought  homes  there,  but  the  States 
were  not  settled  and  could  not  respond  to  the 
agitations  that  were  distracting  the  older  Euro- 
pean governments.  From  1870  sections  of  the 
International  were  formed  in  various  places  in 
America,  and  when  this  historical  Association 
decayed  in  Europe  its  head-quarters  were 
moved  across  the  Atlantic  in  1872.      There  it 


228      THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

died.  Four  years  afterwards  an  attempt  was 
made  to  form  a  national  movement,  the  title 
of  which  was  changed  to  the  Socialist  Labour 
Party  in  1877.  It  was  foreign,  however,  and 
Anarchism  infested  it.  For  years  it  struggled 
with  its  own  impossibilism,  with  splits  and 
rival  parties,  the  most  lurid  event  of  these 
years  of  uphill  fighting  being  the  trial  and 
execution  of  the  Chicago  anarchists  in  1885. 
But  in  1807  a  new  chapter  in  American  Social- 
ism was  opened  with  the  founding  of  the  "Social 
Democracy  of  America."  In  1901,  this  united 
with  the  majority  of  the  Socialist  Labour  Party, 
it  assimilated  itself  to  the  soil,  and  it  is  now  the 
successful  fighting  force  of  American  Social- 
ism. Up  to  now  it  has  been  inspired  mainly 
by  intellectuals,  but  it  is  getting  into  closer 
and  closer  touch  with  the  Trade  Unions  through 
the  American  Federation  of  Labour,  and  in 
a  few  years  the  alliance  will  be  complete. 

Two  sections  of  this  survey  of  the  world's 
Socialist  movement  remain  to  be  reviewed, 
the  British  movement  and  the  International, 
and  that  will  be  done  in  the  next  chapter. 


V 


CHAPTER  XI 

the  socialist  movement  {continued). 

1.  The  British  Party. 

To  trace  the  beginnings  of  the  Socialist  move- 
ment in  Great  Britain,  one  has  to  go  very  far 
back  into  the  economic  speculation  and  criti- 
cism which  assailed  the  development  of  com- 
mercialism. These  speculations  and  criticisms 
took  two  forms.  That  which  has  loomed  larg- 
est in  history  is  the  Utopian  form  of  Owen- 
ism  in  its  various  aspects;  that  which  is  of 
most  intellectual  importance  is  the  economic 
and  juridical  work  of  writers  like  Godwin, 
Thomson,  Hall,  Ogilvie  and  Hodgskin.  These 
men  touched  the  most  assailable  spot  of  the  new 
economic  system  that  was  arising.  It  was  a 
system  of  exploitation,  and  their  claim  was 
that  labour  had  a  right  to  its  whole  produce. 
I  am  convinced  that  when  the  political  and 
organising  phase  of  the  Socialist  movement 
has  been  successfully  finished  and  when  Socialists 
will  be  compelled  to  lay  down  an  ecomonics 
and  jurisprudence  which  will  justify  their  pro- 
grammes, they  will  pass  behind  Marx  and 
establish  a  connection  with  the  school  of  thinkers 
I   have   named.1     But   these   men   left   coteries, 

1  In  this  connection  I  would  specially  draw  the  attention 
of  students  to  the  Right  to  the  whole  Produce  of  Labour  which 

229 


880      THE  SOCIALIST   MOVEMENT 

not  a  movement,  behind  them.  The  time 
was  not  ripe  for  the  latter.  Political  strife 
distracted  attention,  and  the  magnificent 
field  which  opened  up  for  British  commerce 
obscured  its  exploitations  and  baftlcd  every 
attempt  that  was  made  to  organise  the  work- 
ing-class revolt.  The  Chartist  uprising  blazed 
across  the  sky,  but  it  was  a  meteor  not  a 
rising  sun,  and  the  British  workers  settled  down 
to  an  allegiance  to  Radicalism  and  political 
reform,    to   trade   unionism    and   co-operation. 

The  turning-point  in  the  mad  came  early 
in  the  'eighties.  In  1879,  Henry  George's 
Progress  anil  Poverty  was  published  and  had 
an  untold  effect  in  turning  men's  minds  to 
BOcia]  (plot ions.  Poverty  became  a  problem 
of  public  concern,  not  a  mystery  for  private 
and  individual  treatment.  The  Radical  Party 
in  politics  had  been  shipwrecked.  The  British 
guns  thundering  in  front  of  Alexandria  in  1882, 
at  the  bidding  of  a  Liberal  Government,  did 
as  much  havoc  in  Radical  clubs  and  associa- 
tions at  home  as  they  did  in  Egypt. 

An  obscure  body  called  the  Democratic  Fed- 
eration had  been  formed  from  the  spirits  who 
haunted  the  Kleusis  Club  in  Chelsea  (a  famous 
home  of  militant  Radicals)  and  who  met 
on  Clerkenwcll  Green,  in  1882,  and  it  was 
the  soil  upon  which  the  culture  of  Karl  Marx 
was  planted.  Mr.  Hyndman,  an  ardent  dis- 
ciple of  Marx,   became  the  leader  of  the  new 

is  not  only  a  splendid  example  of  the  work  of  its  author, 
Anton  Menger,  but  which  in  its  English  edition  contains  a 
long  introduction  by  Professor  Foxwell,  which  is  as  valu- 
able and  scholarly  as  is  the  main  body  of  the  book  itself. 


K 


THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT      231 

party  which  changed  its  name  to  the  Social 
Democratic  Federation  ("Party"  was  substi- 
tuted for  Federation  in  1906)  in  1884.  The 
propaganda  of  Socialism  was  begun.  The  first 
start  was  not  encouraging;  for  a  split  took 
place  within  a  few  months,  and  the  Socialist 
League,  with  which  the  name  of  William  Morris 
will  always  be  associated,  was  formed.  The 
Federation  was  Marxian  out  and  out,  the  League 
had  strong  Anarchist  leanings,  and  the  two 
were  at  the  time  of  their  split  supplemented 
by  the  eclectic  Fabian  Society  which  had  sprung 
from  a  little  idealist  group,  which  Professor 
Thomas  Davidson  had  formed  a  year  or  two 
before,  called  the  New  Fellowship.  From  these 
carnps  the  Socialist  doctrines  issued.  The 
League  weakened  and  gradually  disappeared 
after  helping  Morris  to  enrich  both  Social- 
ism and  English  literature  by  poems,  lectures 
and  essays  published  in  its  paper,  the  Common- 
weal. The  Federation  was  haughtily  dogmatic 
and  intransigeant;  it  occasionally  broke  out 
into  open  hostility  against  the  trade  union 
movement;  it  never  appealed  to  the  average 
British  mind  though  it  had  a  faith  and  an 
energy  which  ought  to  have  moved  mountains. 
It  ran  three  candidates  for  Parliament  in  1885, 
and  they  polled  in  Kennington  and  Hampstead 
27  and  32  votes  respectively,  whilst  Mr.  John 
Burns  who  fought  West  Nottingham  polled 
598  votes.  As  the  years  went  on,  the  Federa- 
tion was  seen  to  be  occupying  a  corner  all  by 
itself  in  our  public  life,  and  was  isolated  from 
every  section,  except  the  narrow  dogmatic 
one,    that    was    open    to    Socialist    influence. 


232      THE  SOCIALIST   MOVEMENT 

The  Fabian  Society,  on  the  other  hand, 
settled  down  to  purely  educational  work. 
It  preached  its  doctrines  with  remarkable 
brilliancy,    but    it   adopted    "Permeate"   rather 

than  "Organise"  a>  its  watchword. 

Something    had    to    be    done    to    secure    an 
advance,   and    this    was   all    the   more   imperative 

because  leader  after  leader  amongst  the  trade 
unions    had    become    converted    to    Socialism, 

and  the  annual  battles  at  the  Trade  Inion 
Con  9    between    the    old    school    and    the 

new    were    showing    quite    plainly    that    the    new 

school  was  in  the  ascendant  (although  numer- 
ically in  ■  great  but  lessening  minority)  and 
that  none  of  the  younger  men  of  influence  were 
ranging   themselves   with    the   old   guard.    The 

Dock    Strike    had    1 n     won    in     1889    and     the 

new  Unionism  proclaimed.  The  battles  of 
Trafalgar  Square  had  been  fought  and  had 
stirred  many  people's  minds.     Throughout  the 

country,  various  local  Labour  Parties  were 
being     formed,     a     Scottish     Labour     Party     had 

been   started   as  early  as    1S88,  and   that  year 

Mr.    Keir    Hardie    appeared    ai    an    independent 

labour    candidate    for     Mid-Lanark     and     polled 

til!)  votes.  During  the  Trade  i'nion  Congress 
meeting  in  Glasgow  in  1S02,  a  conference  of 
working-class  leader-  was  held  to  consider 
the  position.  The  result  of  this  and  other 
negotiations    was    the    palling    of    representatives 

from  Labour  organisations,  Fabian  branches 
and  other  Sociali-t  societies,  at  Bradford  early 
in  180:>.  and  the  Independent  Labour  Party, 
with  Mr.  Keir  Hardie  a<  its  leading  spirit,  was 
launched.     Its  object  was  Socialism,  its  method 


THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT      233 

was  to  unite  all  the  forces  owning  Socialism 
as  their  goal  and  inspiration.  It  rejected 
abstractions  and  dogmas,  and  it  appealed 
directly  to  the  every-day  experience  of  labour. 
It  proposed  to  enter  politics  at  once,  and  its 
success  was  Instantaneous.     Indeed,  the  harvest 

\\a>    ripe.     The    Party    challenged    both   Liberals 

and  Conservatives,  and  before  it  was  many 
months  old  won  municipal  elections.  At  the 
General  Election  of  1803  Mr.  Hardie  was 
returned  for  South  West  Ham,  and  the  new 
Tarty  proceeded  to  contest  by-election  after 
by-election,    invariably    polling    a    substantial 

number  of  votes. 

The    details    of    its    subsequent     history    need 

not  be  recorded  here.  Hut  the  working  out  of 
its  characteristic  and  immediate  purpose  has 
resulted  in  one  of  the  most  remarkable  changes 
in    British    politics.     The    Party    foresaw    from 

the   beginning    that    under   any    free   government 

the  Socialist  movement  must  unite  for  political 
purposes    with    the    industrial    organisations    of 

the    workers.     That     is    the    explanation    of    the 

battles  in  the  Trade  Union  Congresses. 

This  poli<y  i-.  indeed,  but  the  carrying  out 
of  what  Marx  advised.  Socialism  cannot 
succeed  whilst  it  is  a  mere  creed;  it  must  be 
made  a  movement.  And  it  cannot  become 
a  movement  until  two  things  happen.  It 
must  be  the  organising  power  behind  a  con- 
fluence of  forces  each  of  which  is  converging 
upon  it,  but  not  all  of  which  actually  profess 
it  as  a  consciously  held  belief;  it  must  also 
gain  the  confidence  of  the  mass  of  the  work- 
ing classes.     The  Social  Democratic  Federation 


THE  SOCIALIST    MOVEMENT 

'<■(  ted  both  <>f  these  ta-k>.  the  [ndependent 
Labour  Tarty  busied  itself  with  both  «>f  them; 
the  Social  D  ratk  Federation  drifted  into 
■  backwater)  tin-  [ndependent  Labour  Party 
t  in  midstream.  A  study  <>f  the  fates  which 
rtook  each  of  these  bodies  i>  one  ..f  the  most 
fruitfully  rtive    which    offer!    itself    to    the 

student  of  politi 

When    the    <lin    of    these    t  ra<  l«--u  ni«  >n    battles 

died   away,   the   Trade    Union   Congress   which 
nut   at    Plymouth  in    1*!>!>  resolved  that   a  Con- 
ner,   to    \n  hi<  h    all    Socialist    ami    trade-u: 

bodies  were  to  !><•  summoned,  should  !>«•  held  to 
discuss  tin-  possibility  of  union  for  political 
purposes.  In  tin-  Memorial  Hall,  at  the  end 
of  tin-  following  February,  129  delegates  met, 
some  to  bury  tin-  attempt  in  good-humoured 
tolerance,  a  few  t<»  make  sure  that  burial  would 
be    it-    fate,    hut    tin-    majority   determined    to 

e   it   a   chance.     One  of   tin-  greatest    wn 
m-^M's     of     the     working-dass     movement     in 
Great  Britain,  the  la<k  of  an  adequate  pr< 
in    this    instance  her    in    it>    favour.      \ 

report   or   two   in   a   few   newspapers   was   all   the 

notice  that  was  taken  of  thii  momentous  con" 
fercnoe,  ami  for  sii  yean  the  Party  was  allowed 

row    in  obscurity,  until  in    1906  thirty   Mcm- 

I    I        1'     liiament       Were       elected       Ullder       its 
BUSpici  The    result    came    ;i-    a    holt    from    the 

blue.      The  only  trade  union  of  any  imp' 
which  then  remained  outside-   the  Miners'   I 
(ration— eame   in    in    1909,    and    a    '-olid    phalanx 
of     Labour     candidates     went     to     the     polls    in 

January,  1910.  Forty  were  elected,  and  the 
Party    increased    its   repn  tion    by   two   in 

December    that    year. 


THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT      285 

The  Lnbour  Party  is  not  Socialist.  It  is 
a  union  of  Socialist  and  trade-union  bodies 
for  immediate  political  work — the  Social  Dem- 
ocratic  Party  having  joined  in  at  fir-t  bul  after 
■  year's  co-operation  having  returned  to  its 
isolation  in  1901.  But  it  is  the  only  political 
form    which    evolutionary    Socialism    can    take 

in  a  country  with  the  political  traditions  and 
methods  of  Great  Britain.  Under  British  con- 
ditions, ■  Socialist  Party  is  the  l;ist,  not  the 
first,  form  of  the  Socialist  movement  in  politics. 

2.  The  International. 

Now   I   can   turn    to   what    i-   one   of   the   most 

important  characteristics  of  th<  Socialist 
movement,  its  international  organisation.  In- 
ternationalism is  as  much  a  mode  of  Socialist 
action,  as  it  is  of  Catholic  organisation.  I 
have  shown  how  Socialism  has  taken  root  in 
every  land  where  capitalism  exists,  and  these 
national  movements  all  recognise  their  kin- 
ship with  each  other.  "Socialist"  is  a  pn 
word      which  ITC8      a      welcome      in      every 

working-class  organisation  from  China  to 
Peru.  The  (  ommuniti  Manifesto,  echoing 
an  idea  that  had  been  prevalent  in  working- 
class  associations  for  some  years  previously, 
ended  with  the  appeal  to  the  workers  of  the 
world  to  unite,  and  its  authors  and  their 
followers  have  never  thought  of  the  move- 
ment except  as  one  uniting  all  nations.  Its 
earnest  form  was  an  international  association. 
The  spirit  of  both  Liberalism  and  the 
working-class    parties    in    the    middle    of    the 


M6      THE  SOCIALIST   MOVEMENT 

nineteenth  century  was  international.  The 
Napoleonic  wan  had  exhausted  Europe,  and 
the  culture  <>f  the  time  was  cosmopolitan. 
Begel  finished  his  Phenomenology  of  the  Spirit 

within    BOUnd    (tf    tlie    cannon    at    Jena,    ami    <li<l 

in>t  trouble  hi>  head  aboul  the  battle.  Goethe 
3  equally  indifferent  to  tin'  national  troubles 
of  Germany  when  he  was  not  pained  by  them. 
The  active  spirits  amongsl  the  workers  were 
exiles  drifting  between  Paris  and  London  carry- 
ing on  propaganda  in  every  capital.  Such  a 
band  was  one  of  the  firM  organisations  t<»  welo  me 
Man  a^  a  leader,  ami  in  [847  a  Communist 
\\a^  formed  in  London.     For  this  Les 

Marx  and    Engels  drafted   tin-  Communist  Mniii- 

Hut    the    Revolutions    of    1848    pushed 
both   the    I.<  .md   the   Manifesto   into   the 

background  for  the  time  being.  The  failure 
of  the  Eli  olutions  was  written  in  Mood  and 
repression.  Hut  Socialism  survived  and  gave 
an  impetus  to  the  re-born  political  movements 
in  the  various  countries;  and  in  each  >t 
as  I  have  already  told.  So< aalisl  groups  struggled 

to    pain    and    maintain    a    foothold.     This    went 
on    till    the    International    Exhibition    in    London, 

in    1862,   provided   for  the  international   mo 
ment  another  chance  of  organising  itself. 

A  deputation  of  French  workmen  came  to 
the  Exhibition  under  official  auspices,  and 
entertained  by  English  workmen.  Nexl 
year  another  deputation  came  over  and  was 
again  received  publicly.  The  results  were 
more  than  the  rulers  had  bargained  for.  For, 
on  the  28th  of  September  1864,  an  inter- 
national    meeting     was     held     in     London     at 


THE   SOCIALIST   MOVEMENT      237 

which  a  committee  was  elected  to  form  and 
carry  on  the  business  of  an  International  Work- 
ing-men's Association.  The  duty  of  drafting 
a  constitution  was  first  of  all  entrusted  to 
Mazzini,  but  his  modes  of  thought  and  action 
were  not  congenial  to  the  spirit  of  the  com- 
mittee, and  the  task  was  ultimately  trans- 
ferred to  Marx.  The  note  struck  was  Social- 
ist. In  spite  of  the  growing  wealth  of  the 
nations,  the  lot  of  the  working  classes  was  not 
improving;  the  individualist  economics  of  the 
capitalists  was  breaking  down  both  in  theory 
and  practice.  And  once  more  the  clarion  note 
sounded:  "Working-men  of  all  lands,  Unite '"' 
The  declared  purpose  of  the  International 
was  to  unite  all  the  national  working-class 
movements  that  were  aiming  at  such  political 
and  economic  changes  a-  would  emancipate 
the  people  from   their   mi-cry. 

Unfortunately,  two  sections  of  thought  had 
to  fight  for  its  custodianship.  The  Communist, 
with  his  antagonism  to  centralised  authority 
and  his  belief  in  the  free  commune  and  bee 
association  of  workpeople,  stood  upon  a  road 
sharply  diverging  from  that  upon  which  the 
Socialist  proper  stood,  and  ought  never  to 
have  been  in  the  same  movement.  But  the 
final  aims  of  both  were  pretty  much  the  same, 
however  divergent  their  methods  might  be, 
and  so  they  met  each  other  to  contest  for  the 
selection  of  the  road.  The  Congresses  of  the 
International   were   their   battle   grounds. 

The  Belgian  government  at  once  prohibited 
the  next  Congress  which  was  to  be  held  in 
Brussels,  so  it  met  in  London.     In  Geneva,  in 


B38      THE  SOCIALIST    MOVEMENT 

1866,  :i  programme  including  an  eight  hours' 
•  lay  and  drastic  educational  changes  was  adopted, 
but  a  jarring  note  of  discord  mi  itruck.  The 
French     delegates     mistnisted     "intellectuals." 

These     men     had     stirred     up     strife     by     their 

t beorising  and  dogmatising;  but,  on  the  other 
hand,  had  they  bean  excluded,  the  Inter- 
national   would    have    been    deprived    of    the 

only  brains  which  understood  it  and  could 
lead      it.      Their      >>t\  i<<>      were      retained.      At 

Lausanne,  at  Brussels,  at  Basle,  in  succeeding 
IB,  and  at  the  Hague  in  1S7^,  the  Social- 
ism of  the  Association  became  more  pro- 
nounced. Resolutions  in  favour  of  land 
nationalisation,  of  the  public  control  of  trans- 
port, of  co-operative  ownership  <>f  the  means 
of  production,  of  a  general  strike  in  the 
even!  of  war.  were  earned,  and   this  advance 

in    opinion    was   echeed    by    strikes   and    political 

agitations  in  the  respective  nations.  The 
Congress  of  ls7n  wn>  to  he  held  in  Paris 
but   the  outbreak   of   the   war  with   Germany 

intervened.  The  Commune  followed.  The 
International  hail  to  face  the  storm.  Many 
of    the    more  rvative    WOrking-CUUM    organ- 

isations were  hesitating,  feeling  that  things 
were  being  driven  too  far  and  fast;    others  taking 

the  rlniw irar  doctrine  quits  literally  wire  jealous 
of  the  professional  men  within  their  ranks; 
above  all  there  was  the  old  quarrel  between 
the  Socialist  proper  and  the  Communist  who 
u;is  following  Proudhon  rather  than  Marx. 

This  last  conflict  had  grown  more  bitter 
Congress  after  Congress.  The  Socialist  fashions 
his   action   in   political    and   state    moulds,    the 


THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT      280 

Anarchist  works  for  self-governing  co-operative 
communes  and  workshops.  The  followers  of 
Proudhon  and  Blanqui  disturbed  the  harmony 
of  Geneva  and  Lausanne.  liakunin  entered  the 
scene  at  Brussels  and  Basle,  and  attacked  Marx 
both  personally  and  as  a  leader.  The  storm 
of  the  Commune,  for  which  in  reality  the  Inter- 
national  had  only  ;m  indirect  responsibility, 
l>ut  with  which  it  was  associated  in  the  popular 
mind,  broke  upon  the  organisation  at  a  time 
when  internal  strife  had  dissipated  its  strength. 
Tin-  events    in    Prance    forced  a  grand   battle 

between    the    political    and    the    industrial    win 

of  the   movement,  and   in    1879   the  Anarchist 

ction   had   to  be  expelled.     The   International. 

though  it   had   won   in   its  struggle  against    its 

disease,  was  mortally  afflicted.  bike  a  stricken 
King  Arthur,  it  was  borne  away  aCTOSS  the 
sea.  In  New  York  it  lingered  on  for  a  few- 
months.  A  feeble  Congress  was  held  in  Geneva 
in  1873,  but  that  was  the  end. 

The  international  proletariat  was  not  ready 
to  unite;  the  leaders  had  not  yet  prepared 
the  foundation  with  sufficient  care;  they  were 
still  disCUSSing  their  plans;  the  house  they 
built  tumbled  down  about  their  ears.  And 
yet,  it  was  not  the  idea  but  only  the  plan  that 
failed.  Each  nation  fell  back  upon  itself  and 
gathered  its  workmen  into  movements  appro- 
priate to  their  own  capacity  and  opportunity 
Different  trade  unions,  co-operative  societies, 
peace  associations  held  international  meetings, 
and  in  the  fulness  of  time  the  International 
was  born  again. 

In    1889   about   400  delegates   went   to   Paris 


210      THE   SOCIALIST   MOVEMENT 

from  the  various  Socialist  and  working-class 
organisations  and  formed  what  is  officially 
called  the  Premier  Congrle  d<  In  NouvelU  Inter- 
nationale. In  1  s!) l  the  Cnn_'n">-i  met  again 
in  Brussels,  and  in  1893  in  Zurich.  Once  more 
the  Anarchist  trouble  had  to  be  faced  and  it 
was  settled  at  the  London  Congress  which  met 
in  the  Queen's  Hall  in  1896.  Day  after  day 
the  battle  raged  on  Hour  and  platform.  The 
wild  figures,  the  furious  oratory,  the  hurricane 
dona  "f  that  Congress  will  never  I>e  for- 
gotten  by  those  who  wren  then'.  Hut  in  the 
end,  the  Anarchists  were  routed.  They  had 
i"  go.  The  Internationalist  Socialist  move- 
ment Once  and  for  all  declared  for  political 
action,  for  the  conquest  of  the  State  by  parlia- 
mentary means,  for  revolution  by  evolution. 
Now,  once  every  three  years,  this  parliament 
of  the  workers  meets  to  discuss   the  concerns 

common  to  the  whole  movement.  Every  im- 
portant nation  under  the  son  is  represented  at 
it.  At  it  every  parliamentary  leader  of  the 
movement    appears.      In    the   interval    betwi 

Con  -.    business    is    carried    on    by    an    Inter- 

national Bureau,  with  its  headquarters  in 
Brussels,  upon  which  every  nation  is  represented, 

and    a    comniitt.'  listing    of   one    representa- 

tive from  each  parliamentary  group  representing 
Socialism  and  Labour  in  the  parliaments  of 
the  world,  keeps  each  parliamentary  party 
in  touch  with  all  the  others. 

The  field  covered  by  these  Congresses  may 
best  be  visualised  by  a  summary  of  the  reso- 
lutions passed  during  the  last  ten  years  at 
Amsterdam,  Stuttgart    and    Copenhagen.     Mili- 


THE  SOCIALIST   MOVEMENT      241 

tarism  has  been  condemned  and  a  citizen 
army  approved  instead  of  a  conscript  army 
where  that  is  in  vogue;  international  strife 
has  been  declared  to  be  the  result  of  capitalist 
rivalry;  imperialism  and  an  acquiring  of  col- 
onics have  aNo  been  opposed  on  the  ground 
that  they  are  only  a  form  of  exploitation  of 
the  weaker  races  and  the  fruits  of  the  struggle 
in  which  capitalism  is  engaged  to  expand 
markets  at  any  COft  A  reasoned  policy  of 
co-operation  between  Socialists  ami  trade- 
union  bodies  has  been  drafted  and  a  declara- 
tion made  that  the  end  of  all  trade-union  action 
must  be  Socialism,  and  a  detailed  series 
of  propositions  laying  down  the  conditions 
under  which  the  emigration  and  immigration 
of  workmen  should  proceed  has  been  carried. 
A  sketch  code  of  international  labour  laws 
has  been  agreed  upon,  and  measures  for 
dealing  with  unemployment  discussed  and 
accepted.  A  declaration  has  been  made 
against  votes  being  given  to  any  one  class 
of  women  (what  is  known  in  this  country 
as  "the  limited  Bill")  and  in  favour  of 
adult  suffrage  "without  distinction  of  sex." 
Socialist  unity  in  the  various  countries  has 
been  recommended,  and  in  addition  to  these 
more  general  subjects,  resolutions  dealing  with 
important  questions  of  international  policy, 
which  were  before  the  public  when  the  various 
Congresses  sat,  have  also  been  passed. 

This  surely  is  the  nucleus  of  "the  parlia- 
ment of  man."  The  Congress  is  ready  to 
strike  at  everything  which  makes  for  inter- 
national    discord     and     national     deterioration; 


MA      THE   SOCIALIST   MOVEMENT 

it  is  prepared  to  support  everything  which 
makes  for  peace  and  goodwill  and  which 
advances  the  well-being  of  the  common  folk. 
But  it  is  primarily  concerned  with  the  dis- 
COSsion  and  the  settlement  of  problems  which 
VIM  within  Socialism  as  it  advances  in  the 
various  countries  and  which  meet  Socialists 
in  their  propagandist  and  j>olitical  work,  and 
as  the  parliamentary  parties  increase  in  size 
it  takes  upon  iNelf  more  and  more  of  their 
character  and  its  business  reflects  more  and 
more  closely  their  point  of  view. 


CONCLUSION 

"IT    MANKIND    CONTINTK    TO    IMPROVE*' 

"The  form  of  association,  however,  which, 
if  mankind  continue  to  improve,  must  be 
expected  ID  the  end  to  predominate,  is  not 
that  which  can  exist  between  a  capitalist  as 
chief  and  workpeople  without  a  voice  in  the 
management,  but  the  aaaociation  of  the  labourers 
themselves  on  terms  of  equality,  collectively 
Owning  the  capital  with  which  they  carry  on 
their  operations,  and  working  under  manai'irs 
elected  and  removable  by  themselves."  xnUS 
Mill  wrote  in  the  final  edition  of  his  Political 
Economy.  And  so,  in  the  end.  Mill  grew  out 
of  the  principles  which  were  as  swaddling 
clothes  to  him,  and  ranged  himself  amongst 
those  who  believed  that  the  future  belonged  to 
Socialism.  His  declaration  of  faith  was  in  the 
form  of  a  prophecy,  but  of  a  prophecy  which 
was  the  ending  of  a  life  devoted  in  singleness 
of  purpose  to  inquiry,  to  thought,  to  a  pursuit 
of  truth.  And  he  qualified  his  forecast  by  the 
condition:     "if   mankind   continue   to   improve." 

That  is  the  unknown  factor.  There  are  signs 
of  degeneration  all  around  us.  We  cannot 
draw  upon  the  reservoirs  of  good  physique 
which  once  were  available  in  large  village  popu- 

243 


244      THE   SOCIALIST    MOVEMENT 

lations;  we  have  not  that  mental  robustness 
which  comes  from  fresh  air,  sound  and  plain 
food,  and  a  contact  with  the  invigorating  life 
of  nature,  of  fecund  seed-time  and  joyful 
harvest,  of  tuneful  spring  and  solemn  winter. 
The  family   unity   is   weakened;    the  motherly 

housewife  almost  belongs  to  the  blessings  that 
wire;  the  head  of  the  household  ifl  becoming 
a  survival  of  words  that  once  hail  a  meaning 
but  arc  now  but  a  reminiscence.  The  mascu- 
line strength  of  Puritanism  has  gone  with  its 
repulsive  austerity,  and  education,  planted  on 
minds  of  impoverished  boO,  is  producing  sickly 

and  wccily  Mowers  of  simpleton  credulity  and 
fabc  imagination.  The  comforts  which  the  too- 
wealthy  seek  arc  Hy/antine;  the  pleasures 
which  the  too  poor  follow  unfit  them  for  manly 
effort.  Humanitarianisni  has  forbidden  nature 
to  s];iy  the  weak;    a  lack  of  scientific  forethought. 

and    foresight    has    prevented    the    community 

from  raising  the  mas,  M>  that  the  surviving 
weak  may  not  lower  its  virility.  We  are  in  the 
morasses  of  ■  valley  and  our  salvation  lies  on 
the  way  up  to  the  hills.  '"If  mankind  con- 
tinue to  improve"!  We  cannot  go  back;  we 
can  go  on.  or.  standing,  sink  down  in  the  mora--. 
Progress  is  possible  in  one  of  two  ways. 
W  e  may  return  to  the  mechanical  selection  of 
nature.  'We  may  say  to  the  heart:  "Be  still," 
and  to  the  sympathies:  "Sleep."  The  cir- 
cumstances of  life  will  then  protect  the  existence 
of  certain  adaptable  qualities.  On  the  stage  of 
nature  around  man,  there  is  passing  a  never- 
ending  pagentry  of  victim  and  victor.  The 
strong    trample    the    weak    down;     the    hidden 


CONCLUSION  245 

survive  in  their  shadows.  The  late  brood, 
insufficiently  trained  by  the  mother  when  she 
has  to  leave  it  to  shift  for  herself  in  autumn, 
is  preyed  upon;  the  earlier  brood,  carefully 
nurtured  and  taught  well  in  the  school  of  the 
woodlands,  survives  to  teach  its  own  offspring 
hmv  to  preserve  lilV.  The  foolish  gaudy  thing 
sparkling  in  the  sunshine  amongst  the  leaves 
i^  pounced  upon,  and  nature  knows  it  no  more; 
the  still  sober  thing  which  looks  like  a  leaf,  or 
a  twig,  or  a  speckled  shadow  eludes  the  eye  of 
its  hungry  pursuer  and  lives.  Forms  change 
;h  nature  herself  changes.  Cultivation  drove 
the  grey  wolf  and  the  wild  ox  from  Great 
Britain,  the  use  of  firearms  i^  exterminating  the 
giraffe,  the  introduction  of  the  pig  to  the 
Mauritius  put  an  end  to  the  dodo,  a  change  in 
Atlantic  currents  nearly  destroyed  the  tile  fish 

of  the  North  American  OOast,  alterations  of 
climate  have  driven  whole  families  of  animals 
— like  the  tapir — away  from  old  haunts  and 
homes,  the  development  of  true  bird-like  habit  > 
introducing  the  flying  reptiles  into  new  con- 
ditions doomed  those  which  retained  their  jaws 
of  teeth  and  failed  to  produce  horn-cased  bills 
and  beaks,  the  joining  of  North  to  South 
America  in  comparatively  recent  times  led  to 
the  wiping  out  of  certain  South  American  types 
of  life  like  some  of  the  armadilloes,  and  so  on. 
With  man.  it  is  different.  If  the  climate 
changes,  he  modifies  his  clothes  and  his  habi- 
tation. He  finds  out  many  inventions  first  of 
all  to  defy  nature  and  then  to  exploit  her.  In 
common  with  some  other  animals  he  protects 
himself   by   forming   groups,   and   these   groups 


24«      THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

carry  on  the  war  of  nature.  But  they  nourish 
and  nurture  within  themselves  both  individual 
intelligence  and  personal  and  group  laws  of 
existence,  ethics,  customs,  justice,  religion.  And 
thus  a  new  path  of  progress  is  discovered,  the 
path  which  consists  of  an  intelligent  concep- 
tion of  ends  and  purposes  and  an  adoption  of 
rational  means  to  those  ends.  Man  supple- 
ments nature.  He  robs  her,  so  to  speak,  of  her 
secrets  and  he  uses  them  for  his  own  rational 
purposes.  Nature  produces  everything  she  can 
and  kills  everything  she  can;  man  produces 
what  he  wants  and  kills  what  he  does  not 
want.  Nature's  selection  is  mechanical,  man's 
selection  is  rational;  nature's  selection  is  acci- 
dental, man's  selection  is  purposeful.  The 
partridge  is  dressed  in  khaki  because  nature 
killed  its  kith  and  kin  dressed  otherwise, 
man  dresses  himself  in  khaki  that  he  may 
not  be  killed  at  all.  Human  progress  is  not 
the  result  of  the  natural  law  of  the  survival 
of  the  fittest,  but  of  the  human  art  of  the 
making  of  the  fittest.  Nature  surrounds  her 
children  with  death,  man  surrounds  his  with 
life.  Man,  through  his  intelligence,  co-operates 
with  nature  and  with  his  fellows  in  order  that 
he  may  live. 

The  long  drawn-out  tale  of  human  progress 
is  shadowed  by  error  and  catastrophe,  by  weari- 
some journeys  in  the  wilderness,  by  Canaans 
which,  when  yet  lands  beyond  Jordan,  were 
overflowing  with  milk  and  honey,  but  which, 
when  conquered,  were  almost  barren;  and 
chapter  after  chapter  which  opens  like  a  litany 
closes  like  a  dirge.     But  amidst  the  confusion, 


CONCLUSION  247 

the  conflicts,  the  defeats,  a  survey  of  the  whole 
pageant  reveals  some  order,  and  shows  the 
guiding  purpose  of  an  underlying  idea.  The 
realm  of  justice  extends,  the  essential  equality 
of  man  creates  and  modifies  institutions,  govern- 
ment becomes  more  and  more  a  matter  of 
consent,  and  the  consenters  become  more  and 
more  active  participants  in  it.  That  is  what 
a  general  sweep  of  the  pageant  reveals.  A  closer 
examination  also  shows  law  and  order  in  details. 
A  struggle  can  be  detected  between  individual 
freedom  and  social  discipline,  between  liberty 
and  authority,  between  the  interests  which  for 
the  time  being  can  use  social  organisation  for 
their  own  benefit  and  those  victimised  and 
exploited  by  such  a  use.  This  conflict  is  not 
carried  on  in  a  straight  line  by  a  steady  series 
of  advances,  but  rather  by  a  rythmic  pulsing, 
putting  now  one  interest  and  now  the  other 
in  the  ascendancy. 

The  state  to-day  is  anarchistic.  We  have 
gone  well  through  our  epoch  of  exploitation  by 
individuals  and  classes,  and  the  diastole  and 
systole  of  history  goes  on.  Or,  to  use  a  more 
familiar  simile,  the  pendulum  swings  back- 
wards— but  not  along  the  path  of  its  forward 
swing.  It  has  moved  onwards.  Social  organi- 
sation has  now  to  be  carried  to  a  further  stage. 
And  what  has  to  be  the  subject  of  this  organi- 
sation? It  can  be  but  one  thing — economic 
power.  The  individualist  epoch  created  that 
power,  organised  it,  and  broke  down  under  its 
load.  Like  the  fisherman  in  the  Eastern  tale 
who  liberated  the  genii,  individualism  has  been 
unable    to    control    its    own    discoveries.    The 


248      THE  SOCIALIST   MOVEMENT 

community,  the  state,  the  whole  of  the  people 
— under  whatever  Dame  it  may  be  the  pleasure 
of  different  men  to  designate  it — must  now 
take  over  this  power,  bridle  it  and  harness  it 
and  make  it  do  social  work.  This  i>  tin-  genesis 
of  the  Socialist  movesaent:  this  is  Socialism. 
But  ai  these  changes  in  organisation,  these 
fluctuations  between  individualism  and  sociality, 
subserve  tin-  end  <>f  human  liberty  and  progress, 
bo  the  motive  force  behind  Socialism  is  not 
merely  mfirhanimj  perfection  sad  social  economy. 

but     fife     itself,      Hence,     around     it     an-     ran 

I i \  i 1 1 _r  impulses  of  religion,  of  ethics,  of  art, 
of  literature,  those  creative  impulses  which 
fill  man*S  heart  from  an  inexhaustible  store  of 
hope     and     aspiration,     and     which     make     him 

find   not   only   hi>  greatest    happiness   but   also 

the    very    reason    for   life    itself,    in    pursuing    the 
pilgrim  road   which,  mounting  up  over  the  bills 

and     beyond    the    horizon,    winds    towards    the 
ideal. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

I.  GENERAL  STUDIES   ON   SOCIALISM 
1.  Independent. 

Mr.  Kirkup's  two  books — An  Inquiry  into  Socialism,  1908, 
Longman's,  $1.40  net,  and  A  History  of  Socialism,  1909,  Black, 
710  net — are  satisfactory  and  reliable. 

2.  Socialism  Explained  by  Socialists. 

The  great  text-book  of  modern  Socialism  is,  of  course,  tho 
three  volumes  of  Capital,  by  Karl  Marx,  10,6  per  volume.  Tho 
first  two  are  published  by  Sonnenscheiu,  the  third  by  the  In- 
dependent Labour  Party. 

The  Socialist  Library,  Independent  Labour  Party,  1/6 
per  volume.  Vol  1.  Socialism  and  Modem  Science,  by 
Prof.  Ferri.  This  is  a  Marxian  statement  in  terms  of  Darwin- 
ism. Vol.  2.  Socialism  and  Society,  by  J.  Ramsay  MacDon- 
ald.  An  explanation  of  Socialist  theory  from  the  point  of  view 
of  biologioal  evolution.  Vol.  3.  Studies  in  Socialism,  by  Jean 
Jaures.  Vol.  5.  Collectivism  and  Industrial  Evolution,  by  E. 
Vandervelde.  One  of  the  most  important  contributions  made 
in  defence  of  Socialism  since  the  publication  of  Marx's  Capital. 
Vol.  7.  Evolutionary  Socialism,  by  Edward  Bernstein.  The 
book  which  created  the  modern  Revisionist  movement  in 
( li  rmany. 

F.  Enqels.  Socialism,  Utopian  and  Scientific — 1892,  Sonnen- 
schein,  2/6 — still  remains  a  most  effective  statement. 

Fabian  Essays  rN  Socialism.     1890,  Fabian  Society,  1/6. 

R.  C.  Ensor.  Modern  Socialism.  1907,  Scrihner,  $1.50  net. 
A  compilation  of  speeches  and  pronouncements  by  leading 
Socialists  with  a  useful  introduction. 

249 


250  BIBLIOGRAPHY 


3.  Socialism  bt  Non-Socialists. 

Much  of  the  literature  published  on  behalf  of  the  Anti- 
Socialist  movement  ia  useless  for  serious  students. 
W.    H.    Mallock.     A    Critical    Examination    of    Socialism. 

1908,  Murray,  6/-. 
H.  O.  Arnold  Fosteh.      English  Socialism  of  To-day.     1908, 

Smith  Elder,  2/6. 
The    Case   against    Socialism.     1908.    Allen,    5/-    net.     With 

a  preface  by  the  Rt.  Hon.  A.  J.  Balfour. 

4.     Christian  Socialism. 

Conrad  Noel.     Socialism  in  Church  History.     1910,  Palmer, 

5/-  not. 
A.   V.   Woodward.     Christian  Socialism  in   England.     1903, 

Sonncnschein,  2/6.     An  historical  account. 


II.  BIOGRAPHY 

E.  Bernstein,  Lassalle.     1893,  Sonnenschein,  2/6. 

A.  J.  Booth.     Saint-Simon.     1871,  Longmans,  out  of  print. 

J    \V    Maceail.     William  Morris.     2  vols.,  1899,  Longmans, 

$3.60  net. 
Frank  Podmore.     Robert  Owen.     1906,  out  of  print. 
J.  Spargo.     Karl  Marx.     1910,  Huebsch  (New  York),  $2.60 

net. 

III.  MISCELLANEOUS 

W.  H.  Beveridge.  Unemployment.  1909,  Longmans,  12.40 
net. 

A.  L.  Bowlet.  Wages  in  the  United  Kingdom  in  the  Nine- 
teenth Century.     1900,  Cambridge  University  Press,  6/-. 

A.  L.  Bowlet  and  G.  H.  Wood.     History  of  Wages  in  the 

United  Kingdom  in  the  Nineteenth  Century.     A  series  of 
very  valuable  papers  which  have  been  appearing  in  the 
Statistical  Society's  Journal  intermittently  since  1898. 
J.  A.  Hobson.     The  Evolution   of  Modern   Capitalism.     1894. 
Walter  Scott,  2/6. 

B.  L.  Hutchins  and  A.  Harrison.     A  History  of  Factory 

Legislation.     1910,  King,  3/6. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  251 

H.    M.    Htndman.      Commercial    Crises    of   the    Nineteenth 

Century.     1892,  Sonnenschein,  2/6. 
H.  W.  Macrostt.     The  Trust  Movement  in  British  Industry. 

1907,  Longmans,  $2.50  net. 


IV.    TOWARDS  SOCIALISM 

1.     Co-Operation. 

H.    D.    Llotd.     Labour    Co-partnership    in    Great    Britain. 

1898,  Harper,  $1.00. 
Beatrice   Potter   (Mrs.   Sidney  Webb).     The  Co-operative 

Movement.     1899,  Sonnenschein,  2/6. 

2.     Legislation. 

W.   P.  Reeves.     State   Experiments   in   Australia   and   New 
Zealand.     2  vols.,  out  of  print. 

3.  Municipal  and  Administrative. 

Lord     Avebuby.     On     Municipal     and    National    Trading. 

(Anti-Socialist.)     1907,  Macmillan,  $1.00  net. 
Leonard  Darwin.    Municipal  Trade.  (Anti-Socialist.)     1903. 

Dutton,  $3.50  net. 
F.  W.  Jowett.     The  Socialist  and  the  City.     1907,  Allen,  1/- 

net. 

4.  Trade    Unions   and   the    Labour    Movement. 

Conrad  Noel.     The  Labour  Party.     1906,  Unwin,  1/-. 
Frank     Rose.     The     Coming     Force.     1909,     Independent 

Labour  Party,  1  /-. 
Sidney  and  Beatrice  Webb.     History  of  Trade   Unionism. 

1901.     Longmans,  $2.50  net. 

V.  SCIENCE   AND   PHILOSOPHY. 

P.  Kropotkin.     Mutual  Aid.     1902,  Heinemann,  1/-. 

D.   G.    Ritchie.     Darwinism   and   Politics.     1895,    Sonnen- 
schein, 2/6. 

D.    G.     Ritchie.     Principles    of    State    Interference.     1891, 
Sonnenschein,  2/6. 


25i  BIBLIOGRAPHY 


SOCIETIE8 

Within  recent  years  a  considerable  amount  of  literature  has 
been  issued  by  propagandist  Societies  on  the  subject  of  Social- 
ism.    It  can  be  procured  from  the  following  Societies: — 

Socialist. 

The  Independent  Labour  Party.  28,  Bride  Lane,  Fleet  St., 
B.C.  (This  society  represent!  both  is  its  methods  and  in  its 
opinions  the  evolutionary  a.«|"'  I  ilism.) 

Th<-  Fahiun  Society,  8,  Clements  [on,  Strand,  W.C. 

The  SoeuW  Den  l'arty,  Chandos  Hall,  Maiden  Lane, 

(DoKni:tti''  M.irxi 

The  Church  Booialisl  I.  tgtM,  Rev.  W.  H.  Paine,  37,  West- 
mir.  ace  Gardens,  S.W. 

The  Free  Chnx  i  lmt  League,  Rev.  Herbert  Dunuico, 
01,  Elm  Vale,  Liverpool. 

Anti-Socialist. 

The  And  nion.  58,  Victor  W. 

The  London  Muni.ip.il  Society,  11,  Tothill  St.,  S.  W. 
The  Anti-Socialist  Union  of  the  Free  Churches,  38,  John  St., 
W.  C. 


INDEX 


Advertising,  OS 

America,   Socialist  Party   in, 

228 
Anarchism,  123-125 
Argentine,  226 
Aristocracy   and   Capitalism, 

36,  42 
Art  under  Socialism,  ITS    1N5 
Australia,  119,  107,  100,  220 
Austria,  200.  ! 

Ball.  John,  17,  18 
Bankruptcy,  76 
Bebel,  August.  215 
Bekian  Socialist  Party,  223- 

22S 
Bernstein,  Edward,  212 
Bismarck,  165 
Blanc,  Louis,  102,  165,  218 
Booth.  Charles.  31,  35,  71 
Bundesxath,  10S 

Cade,  Jack,  17 
Canada,  227 

Capital     and     Labour,     con- 
flicts, 43-16 

concentration     of,    46-55, 
111) 
and    mechanical    inven- 
tion, 43 
in  politics,  97 
social  effect  of,  128 
Capitalism,    control    of,    by 
agent9  48,  55 
failure  of,  77 

literature  and,  82-88 
religion  and,  78-82 


Capitalism,  science  and,  88- 
92 
waste  of  capital,  64-66 
waste  of  lal)our,  66-70 
Capitalists,  small,  52-55 
Chartism,  204,  230 
Chili,  226 

Christian  Socialists,  79-81 
Class  War,  18,  147-150,  191, 

210 
Commercial    travelling,    69 

trusts,  effect  on,  68 
Commercialism,  a  phase,  94 
its  results,  83,  85.  87,  95, 

98,  128,  181,  187 
its  end,  97 
Commune  and  municipalisa- 

tiun,  101,  I'OO 
Communism,  122 
i     mmunist  League,  237 
Communist    Manifesto,     196, 

208,  235,  236 
Comtism,  198 
Confiscation,  158,  161-163 

Darwin,  114,  115 
Democracy,  150-154 
Democracy     and     American 
Constitution,  25 
French  Revolution,  23 
legislation,  105 
national  interests,  19 
politics,  106 
Socialism,  107-111,  135, 

154 
the  state,  26,  106,  136 
Dundee,  social  condition,  31, 
71 


253 


254 


L\DEX 


Economic    Determinism,  91, 
142-146 
Engels  on,  146 
Engela,  92,  161,  162,  196,  204. 

208 
Equality.  28,  138-141 

of  opportunity.  139,  192 
Mallock  on.  140 
Equal  remuneration,  112 

Fabian  Society,  231,  232 
Factory  legislation,  164,  204 
Family,  x,  155.  187 
Feudalism,  22,  27 

transition  from,  41 
Finland.  226 
Fourier,   00,    124.    163.    196. 

199-203.  207 
Freedom  under  capitalism,  73 
French     Revolution,     22-20, 

197.  201,  206 
French  .Socialist  Party,  218- 
221 
votes  of,  221 

Galileo,  114 

George,  Henry,  230 

German    Social     Democratic 

Party.  213-217 

votes  of.  216 
Gueede.  Jules,  218.  219 
Guilds.  44 

Human  nature,  goodness  of, 

124 
Income  tax,  160 
Independent    Labour    Party, 

xi.  282-284 
Individual  right,  17 
Individualism  and  Socialism, 
26-28,  123 
atomic,  26 

in  nineteenth  century,  26, 
27 
Industrial  Insurance,  74,  127 
Industrial     Revolution,  char- 
acteristics of,  41—46,  202 
Inheritance,  129 
Intemperance,  33-35 
Interest,  justification  of,  62 


International,  The,  227,  235- 
242 

Congresses,  238-243 
and  anarchism,  237-242 
Israel,  social  religion  of,  202 
Italian  Socialist   Party,  221. 
222 

Japan,  226 
Jaurea,  Jean,  220 
Joint   Stock   Companies  and 
capitalism,  47-50,  118 

Labour,  61 

exploitation  of,  130,  131, 
280 

waste  of,  66-70 
Lat*>ur  Party,  167,  168,  232- 

235 
Lassalle.   151,   164,  206.  213- 

216 
Legislation,  effect  of,  73,  74 
Liberal  epoch.  24.  25.  133 
Liberty,    and   the   state.    135 

conditioned,  135,  166,211 

law  and,  137 

of  Liberal  epoch,  25,  134 

political,  133 

propertied  view  of,  24, 106 

qualitative,  138 
Literature,  82-88 
Lollardy,  17 
Ludd.  Ned.  177 
Luther,  23 

Machinery,    176-178,  203 
value  of,  and  labour,  46 

Mallock.  \V.  H..  29.  30,  51. 
52.  61.  71,  140,  141,  171, 
172,  174,  184 

Mc_x,  Karl,  61.  91.  92,  102, 
141.  146,  148,  162.  196.206- 
213,  230,  233,  236.   239 

Mallock  misquotes,  61 

Marxism.  210-213.  219 

Materialist  conception  of  his- 
tory. 142-146. 

Mechanical     invention,     and 
capital.  43.  176,  177 
under  Socialism,  176-178 


INDEX 


255 


Mercantile  Marine  Company, 

63 
Middle  class  rule,  24,  105 
Monopoly,  40,  55,  66-61,  132, 

159,  160,  189 
More,  Sir  Thomas,  time  of,  39 

Utopia,  39 
Motives,  113,  175 
Municipalisation,  26, 101,1 19, 

157 
Mutual  aid,  15-17,  27,  106 

National  wealth,  70,  71 

distribution     of,     30-35, 

49,52,71,  126 
workshops    (1848),    164, 
167,  217 
New  Zealand,  226 
Norwich,  social  condition,  31 


Over-capitalisation,  50,  65 
Owen.  Robert,  99,  196,   197, 
202-205 

Peasants'  Rising,  17,  38 
Pier»  Plowman,  38 
Poverty,  30-41,  70-77,  115 

statistics  of,  29-35 
Prices,  63.  68 

Printing-press   under   Social- 
ism, 182 
Private  property,   conditions 
of.  132 

exploitation,  131 

foundation    of     society, 
126-129 

in  industrial  capital,  132 

in  land,  132 

liberty  and,  125,  130 

limitation  of,  130 

Mill  on,  126 
Private    property,    Socialism 

and.  125-132 
Production,  limitation  of,  68 

purpose  of,  65 
Progress  and  Poverty,  230 
Proportional    representation, 
153 


Protestantism,  22 
Proudhon,  80,  207,  239 

and  the  International,  239 

Referendum,  153 
Reichstag,  108 
Religion,  78-82 
Religious  Education,  156 
Renaissance,  22 
Rent,  nature  of,  56-61,  159 
Revisionism,  212 
Revolution,  103,  104,  170 
Right  to  work,  75,  163-169 
Rowntree,  Seebohm,  31, 35, 71 
Russia,  225 

Saint-Simon,   196-202,  207 
Science   and   commercialism, 

88-91 
Shareholders,  a  class,  48 
Slavery,  wage,  73,  135,  165 
Social  Democratic  Party,  231, 

234 
Social  Revolution,  104 
Socialism  and  ability,  171-178 
anarchism,  123-125 
art,  86,  178-185 
class  war,  147-149 
communism,  122,  123 
confiscation,    158,     161- 

163 
definition  of,  xi 
democracy,  107,  150-153 
education  under,  173,  174 
equality,    112,    139-141 
family,  the,  x,  155,  156, 

187 
finance,  158 
historical  evolution,   15- 

28,  143,  195-243 
human  motive,  175 
individualism,   124,  164 
inheritance,  129,  130 
liberty,  xi.  132-138,  193 
literature,  82-88 
machinery,    176-178 
minorities,  185-189 
newspapers,    185-189 
poetry,  180:  181 


2.56 


INDEX 


Socialism  and  politics.  103, 
110,  152. 154-169,  laS, 
208,240,  24J 

property,  L26   132 

publishing  1M 

religion,  f$  aa 

ive    Rovcrn- 
mcnt. 

ni.  151 

LOS   104,  150 
sci'  ■  91 

102,  114   l-'l 
tendencies    towards,    99, 

llf,  121,111 
thesta- 

us,  101,  232, 
241 
I  • 

.  shoo     manager. 
180   104 
Socialism  in  Am< 

I'..  Lghim,  223  224 
J 17  221 
213   -'17 

Lb,    H»s   hi 
I 

its    politics,     108-111, 

[(  ily,   221,   - 

Japan.  . 

ritaerUn 

Socialist  distribution,  112- 
123 


Socialist  League.  231 
methods,  9W-1J1 
palliatives,  154-156 
programme,     154-169 
South  A  in 

D  philanthropists,  202 
State  capitalism,  157 

.  purpo 1.   10,  28)  204 

( 'orporation,  American, 
73,  102 
k  Exchange,  63 
Egle  fur  Life,  77.  OS,  . 
rland,  loU. 

Taxation,  1 
Thrift, 

Tra'!  72 

•  ■   Union  Congress, 
238,  - 
!••  unionism,  t">.  7.", 
Trust*   17.  61,  62,  66,  6G,  68, 

lis.  i.o,  190 
T>!  17 

mployment,    40,    71  73, 
16  tl 

DtopiftD  method,  99-103,  170 

Emile,  161, 
Village  community,   L'0.   _'l 

It  Ham,  31 


M' 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA   AT   LOS   ANGELES 

THE  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below 


JUNUmt 


AUG  1         49 
3    '5%  2 


>'■ 


# 


# 


SEP 


Form  L-9- 


LOS  ANGELES 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


AA    000  388  605    8 


